Runaways
by FoxtrotTango543
Summary: When a girl and her Night Fury are found on what was thought to be an uninhabited island, questions are asked. Where do they come from? Why did they leave? And why is music heard from their hut at night? SnotloutxOC. ToothlessxOC.
1. Meeting Brenna and Starlight

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

It was a normal day on Berk. The sun was shining, dragons were roaring happily, Vikings were going about their daily routines, and our favourite Vikings were planning to go to an island that had recently been discovered, but was unexplored. "I wonder what kind of dragons live on this island," Fishlegs squeaked excitedly as he packed enough food to feed half the village . . . or one Fishlegs.

"I hope any dragons that live there like explosions," Ruffnut wished. Tuffnut sighed happily at the thought of it.

"They could come with us and cause uncontrollable chaos all over Berk," Tuffnut sighed. "Pinch me; I'm dreaming."

"I can do better than that!" Ruffnut grinned, punching her brother in the shoulder. Tuffnut yelled in pain, and jumped off Belch to attack his sister. Barf and Belch held their riders back, throughly pissed off.

 **"Cause uncontrollable chaos all over Berk?"** Barf asked, repeating what his rider (well, one of them) had said. **"Then why are we here?"**

 **"To stop them from killing each other,"** Belch answered. **"You know, we should get paid for this."**

 **"Agreed,"** Belch told him.

"Did it ever occur to anyone that we might have to deal with hostile dragons?" Astrid asked angrily, passing around pouches of dragon nip. "Only use these in case of an emergency, like in case a wild dragon tries to attack you."

 **"The only emergency I'm having is that there's dragon nip right in front of me and I can't have any of it!"** Hookfang grumbled.

 **"Hookfang, if Snotlout doesn't use any of it, he'll give it to you,"** Toothless suggested, acting as the voice of reason.

 **"The sooner we get back to Berk, the better,"** Stormfly complained.

 **"Why do you say that?"** Meatlug questioned.

 **"It means she gets more time to find out where Astrid hid the chicken if she gets back early,"** Toothless answered. Hookfang used his wing to muffle his laughter. Barf and Belch burst out laughing.

 **"Nice one, Toothless!"** they laughed. Stormfly and Meatlug, on the other hand/paw/claw, weren't particularly impressed.

 **"Toothless, that is just plain mean!"** Stormfly scolded. **"How would you like it if I laughed at how much haddock you eat?"**

 **"You'd probably end up choking on a chicken bone if you laughed too hard,"** Toothless pointed out. Hookfang gasped when he saw the furious look on Stormfly's face.

 **"Toothless, get away from her!"** Barf and Belch warned, too late. Toothless looked at Stormfly and froze.

 **"Ohhh spike,"** he muttered, before Stormfly pounced and pinned him to the ground by the throat. **"Stormfly, get off me!"**

 **"Take back what you said and I'll think about it,"** she growled, increasing the pressure on his neck so he couldn't breathe. **"Now, Toothless, if there's one thing that you have to know, it's that the amount of chicken I have is none of your business! Is that clear?"**

 **"Yes,"** Toothless choked out, squirming to get away from her. **"Now let me go!"**

 **"OK,"** Stormfly agreed, getting off the defeated Night Fury, who lay there gasping for breath.

 **"We told you so,"** Barf and Belch warbled in unison.

 **"Shut up,"** Toothless hissed.

"Anyway, since this island is unexplored, we'll need to stay together so nobody gets lost," Fishlegs suggested scaredly. "We don't know what we're going to encounter when we're in there."

"You're right," Hiccup acknowledged. "But before we land, we'll make sure to fly over the island to get a sense of how big it is and how it's laid out. That OK with you?" Murmurs of agreement were heard. "Then saddle up. We've got an island to explore."

* * *

After a long, weary flight to the mysterious island, where two stops had to be made for resting and food, they flew over the island they'd discovered. It was mostly forest, with a beautiful sandy coastline around the edges of the island and a river running through its east side to the west. To the north, there were a collection of caves that were engraved into the sides of several rocky mountains. Everyone had to agree that it was beautiful.

"This is a nice place," Astrid had to say. "Let's split up which part of the island we should explore first."

"Maybe the beaches," Tuffnut suggested. "That seems like a really good place for us to go and relax- I mean, discover new things!"

"The river's a good sign," Fishlegs pointed out. "Fresh water means that there must be animals living there."

"Or people," Hiccup interrupted, pointing at a ship that was left at the shore. "Someone's been here before us, gang." The ship was beautiful, painted blue trimmed with silver and with an odd emblem on the white sails. It was a bloodied sword with a skull on its tip. The sword's blade was outlined with red, the skull had a black outline with the eyeholes in white and the hilt of the sword was drawn in silver. The ship looked to be in good condition, not needing any repairs other than a new coat of paint and maybe some new sails. This was no shipwreck. It looked like whoever had piloted the ship left it there believing that they would get back to her later.

"Maybe they died," Tuffnut pointed out. Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout stared at him with horror. Fishlegs squeaked and hid behind Meatlug. Ruffnut grinned.

"Their skeleton's probably still on the island right now, rotting away as we speak," Ruffnut described. Fishlegs turned a pale green.

"There is not a skeleton on the island," Hiccup told them, which seemed to calm Fishlegs. "Now let's go looking around this place. Hey, we could find people living here who could tell us more!"

"And I suppose you'll be figuring this out from their mangled corpses?" Ruffnut taunted. "Or a few wailing ghosts." Fishlegs hid behind Meatlug again, and the twins laughed. Barf and Belch also thought this was funny.

 **"I can't believe you have such a wimpy rider, Meatlug,"** Barf scoffed.

 **"Good thing ours aren't like that,"** Belch boasted. Meatlug grinned, and went behind the ship. She tapped on the hull of the ship with her claws and growled. Tuffnut squealed and hid under Belch's wing.

"Monsters! Monsters everywhere!" Tuffnut moaned. Barf and Belch were mortified.

 **"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"** Meatlug asked sweetly.

 **"Nothing,"** both heads muttered.

"Meatlug, you must be thirsty after all that flying," Fishlegs fussed. "How about we go see that river and get us something to drink?"

"Let's go check out these beaches!" Tuffnut cheered.

"Those caves are mine!" Snotlout claimed. "This is all going in my collection! A man can never have enough caves!"

"There could be a few Whispering Deaths in those woods," Astrid rationalized. "I'm looking a little closer at those."

"That boat raises a few questions for me, and I think inside the ship are the answers," Hiccup said. "I'm going inside."

"It could be what's on the island that tells us more," Astrid pointed out.

"But the ship's the only sign of humans being here," Hiccup argued. "I have to take a closer look." And with that, he and Toothless walked into the ship. Astrid sighed with frustration.

 _That boy doesn't listen to a word I say,_ she thought, as she mounted Stormfly and took off towards the woods. Snotlout and Hookfang headed for the caves, Fishlegs and Meatlug for the river, and the twins rode Barf and Belch to the beaches.

* * *

"Wow, whoever was here before us certainly knew of an ingenious method of extracting water from a river without getting wet," Fishlegs marvelled, eyeing up the seesaw-like system that tipped water into one of the two barrels at either end. It reminded Fishlegs of the huge mead barrels he'd seen on Berk. "I'm sure they won't mind if I borrow some. Besides, it'll fill itself up later." Taking a pitcher out of his bag, he filled it with water from one barrel and hastily drank it, chugging it all like alcohol at a drinking game.

 **"Now I feel thirsty,"** Meatlug whined. Fishlegs felt sorry for her.

"Here, girl, your turn," Fishlegs cooed, refilling it from the other barrel and holding the flask to her mouth as she thirstily drank the cool, refreshing water.

 **"That felt good,"** she gasped. **"Where has everyone gone?"** Confused, she wandered off to search for them, making Fishlegs panic.

"Meatlug, stay with me," Fishlegs instructed, catching up to Meatlug. "If we get split up, we won't be able to find anyone or each other! Let's continue along the path of the river so we know we aren't going to get lost." Meatlug conceded defeat, walking with Fishlegs along the side of the river. It was all going fine until suddenly they were scooped up in a net, being dragged away by the trap and hoisted up in the air. Fishlegs passed out from fear.

* * *

"Finally, something to really explore!" Snotlout cheered, as he gazed at the caves buried inside the walls of the mountain. "Hiccup's exploring some boring shipwreck, Fishlegs is geeking out over a river, the twins are being . . . well, the twins and Astrid is wandering around in some boring old woods! But none of them have what it takes to be like me! Snotlout, Snotlout, oi, oi- AAARGH!" Snotlout screamed, as Hookfang set his butt on fire to stop him boasting. "Hookfang!"

 **"Shut up,"** Hookfang grumbled. **"So some mountain has a few holes in it. Big deal."**

"Hookfang, you are in such big trouble when we get home!" Snotlout shrieked, as he put out the fire in a small pond. "Now, let's see if these caves are cool inside and out."

 **"Oh, stop being such a hatchling; they're caves!"** Hookfang grumbled, following Snotlout inside. **"I take it back, these caves actually aren't so bad!"**

The cave Snotlout and Hookfang had entered was roomy, warm and somehow able to balance being well-lit without letting in a draught. But then Snotlout tripped over a small boulder, falling flat on his face as Hookfang did what he usually did: laugh at his idiot rider. "Oh, shut up, Hookfang," Snotlout grumbled.

 **"Why can't I laugh? This is funny,"** Hookfang snickered, taking a closer look at the boulder Snotlout tripped over . . . before realizing that it wasn't a boulder.

"Hookfang, what's wrong?" Snotlout asked. "Terrible Terror got your tongue or - THERE'S A BONE ON THE FLOOR!" Terrified, both dragon and human fled the cave and sought refuge in another. They lay there, panting for breath and wanting nothing more that to get off the island. However, their frantic exit had caused an avalanche of boulders, and one of them was blocking the only exit. They were stuck.

 **"Oh, no,"** Hookfang muttered.

* * *

"Exploring these beaches was a great idea," Tuffnut told Ruffnut, as he lay on his back basking in the sun. "I've never done anything more relaxing in my life."

"Agreed, brother," Ruffnut confirmed, sighing as she sat up. "I could just lie here forever." Barf and Belch, however, were exploring out of boredom and curiosity.

 **"Why are our humans so sluggish?"** Barf asked. **"It's not that hot!"**

 **"This means we can sneak off and not get into trouble,"** Belch grinned. **"Anyway, let's get some fish."**

As Barf and Belch went searching for their lunch, they walked a little too far and got caught in a net, hoisting the poor Zippleback into the air. This snapped the twins out of their little nap. "Barf and Belch are stuck!" Ruffnut alerted.

"We have to save them!" Tuffnut declared, both twins running towards their precious dragon. However, their plan was foiled when they were trapped too.

 **"We're doomed!"** both heads groaned.

* * *

Astrid and Stormfly strolled through the woods, happily searching for any sign of any person who had ever lived here, dead or alive. But the more they searched, the less hope they had. "Maybe whoever got here before us actually did die," Astrid muttered.

 **"If it turns out Ruffnut was right about the mangled corpses, I am taking you straight back to Berk,"** Stormfly hissed. **"And I won't use the two rest breaks you had either!"**

"Oh, stop complaining, Stormfly, you can have some chicken when we get home," Astrid remarked. This sent Stormfly into a rage.

 **"What? You seriously think that some chicken is all you need to distract me from protecting you?"** Stormfly raged. **"Astrid, I can't believe you seriously think you can deter me with food? You are very mistaken!"**

As the two walked, neither noticed the cleverly-disguised pit in front of them . . . until it was too late.

* * *

Hiccup and Toothless walked around the ship's deck, looking for any signs of what the ship's owner may have been like. And what they had found amounted to . . . nothing. Literally nothing. Zero, zip, zilch, naught, nyet, nada!

"It's like they came here without any possessions at all!" Hiccup exclaimed with frustration. "Where on earth could they have put them?"

 **"On dry land?"** Toothless suggested sarcastically. Hiccup glared at him.

"Oh, don't use that tone with me, mister," Hiccup scolded. Toothless growled, and continued to look for any signs of a past owner's presence. However, the sharp-eyed Night Fury did find a set of stairs leading downwards to the ship's hull. "Nice work, bud!"

 **"No need to thank me,"** Toothless cooed, slinking downstairs to where there had to be clues as to what the ship's previous owner was like. **"On second thoughts, maybe we won't find anything down here either."**

"Seriously? Still nothing? Maybe Ruffnut was right," Hiccup sighed, leaning on a wall, which caved in slightly. "Huh?" Without warning, a cage descended from above their heads, successfully trapping both human and Night Fury. Toothless tried to break out, throwing his weight against the walls, but Hiccup stopped him. He didn't want his friend to be hurt.

 **"Whoever made this trap is going to be sorry!"** Toothless growled.

"Stand down, Toothless," Hiccup soothed, as his friend tried to escape. "Any plasma blasts out of you will blow a hole in the ship and make it sink."

"Smart thinking, boy," a voice said. "Why didn't you use it to keep both you and your dragon off my ship? Unused doesn't mean unwanted."

"Who are you? And where are you?" Hiccup asked, searching the room for any and all signs of a new arrival. But he couldn't see anyone. "Hello? Anyone?"

"No need to yell, kid. I'm right here," the voice replied, stepping out of the shadows. They wore a long hooded blue cloak with silver edges and odd-shaped buttons on both sides. All Hiccup could tell about the owner of the boat was that they were very tall, dwarfing possibly even Fishlegs. Toothless saw them as a threat and started growling. The figure shushed him, rubbing the Night Fury's jaw. "I won't harm you," they cooed, sounding softer and gentler and . . . feminine. Wait, could they . . .

The figure then removed the cloak and showed their face to Hiccup and Toothless. Their captor was a girl, and a pretty one, too! She had bright red hair which was partly obscured by the cloak, and freckles dotting her cheeks. Gold eyes rested above them, which were currently staring angrily at Hiccup and Toothless. "You wanted to know who I am. I'm Brenna Bloodsword, who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Hiccup Haddock," Hiccup introduced, terrified. "When are you going to let us out of this cage?"

"Right now," Brenna answered, walking over to a pulley and winching the cage upwards. "Just tell me when you want me to stop."

"Stop," Hiccup eventually said, once the cage was well above the heads of both him and Toothless. Brenna looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What are you looking at?" Hiccup asked.

"Well, you two are going to move out of the way of the cage, aren't you?" she asked. Hiccup blushed, and Toothless sniggered. Brenna caught it. "That applies to you too, Toothless. Get moving."

 **"How do you know my name?"** Toothless gasped.

"Of course I know your name, Toothless. I heard Hiccup using it," Brenna replied. Hiccup goggled.

"You can understand what he's saying?" he squeaked.

"Of course," Brenna answered, as she opened the hatch to let them out. "I've been doing it for ages. Now let's go find your friends."

"You knew I never came alone?" Hiccup stuttered.

"Nobody ever comes here alone," Brenna answered offhandedly. "All those dumb explorers think it's too dangerous for that. That's why I set up a few traps around the island."

"They're OK, aren't they?" Hiccup asked, already full of concern.

"Of course. I never use lethal traps," Brenna answered. "The worst that could happen is that they're scared and want to leave. The trap I'm most worried about is the one I set up in the caves."

"Snotlout's in there!" Hiccup yelled, racing up to the ship's deck and saddling up Toothless. "You need to get on! Snotlout could be hurt!"

"I have my own ride, thank you," she politely refused. Hiccup was confused, until she whistled quickly. "Starlight!" Out of the trees, a female Night Fury burst out, gracefully landing besides Brenna. She was a little smaller than Toothless, with purple eyes instead of Toothless' green ones. "Good to see you, girl," Brenna whispered.

*Norse **"Good to see you too,"** Starlight replied. Hiccup blinked, staring at Brenna, then Starlight, then Brenna.

And then he fainted.

* * *

"Hiccup, are you OK?" Brenna asked, as Hiccup groggily woke up and checked his surroundings. He was somewhere else now, lying on a bed. Astrid, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs were all standing close to him, but not too close. "You were out cold for about two hours. I had to leave you with Toothless while me and Starlight found everyone."

"I . . . er, thanks, but where did you take me? This isn't the ship," Hiccup mumbled.

"Actually, this is my house. I've been living here for the past two years," Brenna answered. "I couldn't take you by air, so we walked. Thank Thor it wasn't far from here."

"Brenna, how is Starlight able to talk?" Fishlegs asked. "Was she taught? Did she learn it from other people? Is there any way we can teach the other dragons? Where did you find her? Is there a colony of other Night Furies we don't know about? Can you show us?"

"What did you do to Hiccup when he was on your ship?" Astrid growled. "Did you hurt him? Cause if you hurt him, you. Are. Dead!" She attempted to thrust the blade of her axe to Brenna's throat, but the twins restrained her.

"You will not kill her, understand?" Ruffnut grunted, as she pulled the axe away from Astrid. "She hasn't hurt Hiccup at all."

"She got you and Stormfly out of a hole in the ground that you were stuck in!" Tuffnut added.

"That was her fault to begin with!" Astrid screamed. Hiccup got out of bed and stood between Astrid and Brenna, acting as a human wall.

"Astrid, I'm fine. Brenna didn't lay a finger on me," Hiccup assured her. "You don't need to try to kill her." Convinced, the blonde lowered the axe and glared at Brenna, who didn't seem scared at all.

"You just keep away from Hiccup, you hear me?" Astrid hissed.

"Yeesh, we get it, Astrid! Hiccup's yours, we can't have him, blah blah blah," Ruffnut droned, covering her ears. "Somebody get me some sheep wool so I can use it to plug my ears!"

"I'm just going outside for some air," Fishlegs muttered, wandering out of the house, taking a left, then a right, left, left again, right . . . and getting lost. Where was he? It looked like he was in the woods, but this seemed a bit more ordered and sensible. Then it hit him. He was in Brenna's garden, and these were her plants! Excited, he ran around the garden, taking care not to damage anything as he saw all the species of plants she was growing. _I don't recognize any of this stuff!_ Fishlegs thought. _It's all undocumented! None of it's in Berk's botanical records at all!_ These plants were strange, exotic and beautiful, and it seemed for every plant Fishlegs spied, there was another plant that also caught his eye. Fishlegs found himself wishing for more eyes so he could see everything all at once . . . and then he saw something that blew his mind.

One plant stood tall and strong, bigger than all the other plants Fishlegs had seen, which looked like weeds in comparison. It almost looked like a tree and its stem was as thick as his forearm. The leaves were a dark green, and as wide as his head. But what really got Fishlegs' attention was the head. This plant looked like a flower about to bloom, but was actually a huge mouth, with two broad, almost grinning jaws lined with big, sharp, teeth-like thorns.

"Er, hello there, sir, ma'am, whatever you are," Fishlegs whimpered. "I didn't mean to disturb you." The plant snapped at him, and he screamed and fled. Miraculously, he remembered the way back to Brenna's house and he burst in through the doors screaming.

"What happened? Are you OK? Hurt? Ill?" Brenna worried.

"BRENNA, YOU HAVE A PLANT WITH TEETH IN YOUR GARDEN AND I THINK IT WANTS TO EAT ME!" Fishlegs screamed. Everyone looked at Brenna with confusion.

"You have a plant with teeth?" Hiccup repeated.

"You have a garden?" Snotlout asked. "Seriously? You?"

"I have to grow my own food out here," Brenna answered simply. "Nobody's just going to hand it to me, you know. Wait, what were you doing in there? I never told you about my garden."

"I went out for some air, and after a few twists and turns, I found a garden full of the most amazing plants!" Fishlegs told the other teens. "I tried to look at all of them, but whenever I saw one, I found another one, and then another and another!"

"Let me know when it gets interesting," Snotlout yawned, as his eyes drooped.

"At the very back of the garden, there was a massive plant that was bigger than some trees, and where you might find a flower or seeds there was a massive head with teeth as long as my thumb!" Fishlegs eagerly described, still shaking with fear.

"Now it got interesting!" Snotlout yelled, eyes snapping wide open. "I wish I could've been there to see the plant nearly eat Fishface!"

"Fishface is his name?" Brenna asked.

"No, I'm Fishlegs," Fishlegs introduced. "The guy who called me that is Snotlout, Astrid was the one holding an axe to your throat, you already know Hiccup, and the twins are called Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Ruffnut is the girl twin, Tuffnut is a boy."

"Remind me again why people are so focused on Fishlegs almost being eaten and concern ourselves with how there is a plant that has teeth?" Tuffnut whooped.

"I know, right? That is so cool!" Ruffnut cheered. "Bring the plant! Bring the plant! Bring the plant! Bring the plant!"

"I am not going to bring a plant with teeth to you," Brenna refused. "And I won't let you as close to it as Fishlegs got. It nearly ate him, for crying out loud!"

"Way to ruin our fun," the twins grumbled, glowering at Fishlegs, who was too happy to be alive to really care.

"Isn't it a little strange to live on an island with no other humans for company?" Hiccup asked. "I mean, you have Starlight to keep you company, but you're really far away from any civilisation and if something goes wrong, you've got nobody to help you."

"It's not as bad as you think it is," Brenna replied. "The river running through it gives us a fresh water supply. The soil here is perfect for growing crops, and that river has plenty of fish so Starlight never has to go hungry. It's no picnic, but once you've been here long enough to know how to keep bears and wolves away, it's fine."

"Bears?" Snotlout asked.

"No, Snotlout, I was talking about three-headed trolls," Brenna sassed.

"BURN!" Tuffnut cheered.

"Why did you leave your old village?" Astrid asked. Brenna seemed to stiffen.

"I was always taught to never stay where you weren't wanted," Brenna answered. A chill ran down everyone's spines as they tried to work out what Brenna meant. Snotlout was the one to break the silence.

"Brenna, you've been living in a forest with nobody for company for two years," Snotlout started, then fell silent. He wasn't sure how to phrase this without accidentally insulting her. "How would you like to come and live with us on Berk? That's where we come from, and where you could stay without having to worry about bears and wolves and stuff."

"Can Starlight come with me?" Brenna asked. Hiccup smiled.

"Berk is a place that accepts and lives with dragons," Hiccup told her. "Of course we'll let Starlight stay!"

"Thank you," Brenna smiled. "I'll go look for her." Happily walking off to look for Starlight, she soon disappeared from view. The other riders waited for a second before they heard a yell of "Seriously? You lot were here the whole time?"

"What?" Hiccup yelped, and the gang went out to look. They found Brenna staring angrily at their dragons. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Starlight, Toothless, Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf, Belch and Meatlug had been listening in on the conversation the entire time. All the humans laughed, as the dragons looked away with shame.

 **"I knew this was a bad idea,"** Hookfang grumbled.

 **"Then why didn't you tell us?"** Stormfly hissed.

 **"How does your human even hear that well, anyway?"** Meatlug asked Starlight.

 **"Maybe she's just really weird,"** Barf suggested.

 **"Don't you think that's a little mean?"** Toothless asked.

 **"No, but it may be a little accurate,"** Belch argued.

 **"You shut up about my human!"** Starlight defended. **"Don't you know that she-"**

"Can understand you?" Brenna finished. "Barf, Belch, this is a little disappointing. I barely know you, and you're insulting me. If you're going to insult me, you could at least say it to my face."

 **"Sorry,"** both heads muttered.

"That's more like it," Brenna confirmed. "Now, Starlight, you want to get anything before we go?"

 **"Just my spare saddle and maybe some fish for the journey,"** Starlight answered. **"I don't need anything else."**

"Oh, good," Brenna replied, going into a different room in the house. Objects were moved, papers were shuffled, and eventually, Brenna staggered out with three bags, one in each hand and one strapped to her back. The smallest bag seemed to be filled with clothes. Another seemed heavier and full of lumps. Hiccup deduced that it was carrying books. Nobody had any idea what the hell the bag strapped to her back contained.

"Are you OK, Brenna?" Fishlegs asked.

"Fine," Brenna answered. "I've carried heavier things than this." As she spoke, her grip on the larger bag slipped and she struggled to lift it back up. Starlight nudged it upwards with her snout. "Thanks."

*Norse **"It's OK,"** Starlight replied.

 **"How do you know how to speak Norse?"** Toothless asked, as he studied Starlight's features. However, at the same time, he was scared to look too long in case she thought he was weird. What neither Night Fury knew was that they were developing crushes on each other.

 **"Oh, I've been living with Brenna since I was a hatchling in her old village. I've known it all my life,"** Starlight answered. She wasn't too sure how Toothless would react to this. She'd explained this before, and it hadn't gone well. But she was talking to humans. Maybe dragons would be more accepting.

 **"That's actually pretty cool,"** Toothless answered. Then he became curious. **"How did you ever learn how to fly or fish for yourself without other dragons to teach you?"**

 **"If you looked closely, you'd realise that bears fish almost exactly like dragons,"** Starlight told him. **"I learned from wild bears, and once I was able to fly, I learned how to dive for fish. And I learned how to fly from birds."**

 **"Sorry to bother you, but if you don't mind, I'd like to get to know the new guy,"** Hookfang interrupted, shoving Toothless aside. **"Time to join the boys club, Starlight!"**

 **"Hookfang, don't you know that-"** Toothless tried to point out.

 **"Not now, Toothless. I'm talking to the new guy,"** Hookfang dismissed. **"Starlight, I am so glad you're not a girl. Stormfly and Meatlug are bad enough!"** That's when Starlight lost her temper and tail-slapped Hookfang right in the face.

 **"Hookfang, I am a girl!"** Starlight yelled as she stormed off. Toothless glared at Hookfang

 **"This is what you were trying to tell me, wasn't it?"** Hookfang groaned. Toothless nodded. **"Knew it."**

 **"No, you didn't,"** Toothless retorted. **"If you knew, you'd have kept your mouth shut. I'll go and see if she's OK."**

 **"Fine, fine, you go and play peacekeeper,"** Hookfang muttered, before an idea hit him. **"Wait a minute. Girl Night Fury, boy Night Fury - were you making a move on her?"**

 **"No!"** Toothless denied quickly.

 **"You were, weren't you?"** Hookfang teased. **"Aww, Toothless is in love with Starlight!"**

 **"Shut up!"** Toothless yelped. Hookfang teased him more.

 **"You must have been discussing where your nest should go before I showed up,"** the red Monstrous Nightmare laughed. **"Maybe if I leave, you can pick up where you left off?"**

 **"Hookfang, I think someone just set Snotlout on fire,"** Toothless pointed out.

 **"What?"** Hookfang roared, enraged. **"NOBODY sets Snotlout on fire but me! They've got a lot of nerve to - oh, he's gone. Spike."**

* * *

Still angry about Hookfang thinking she was a guy, Starlight went looking for Stormfly and Meatlug. They must be the only girl dragons they knew, and might be able to relate to being confused for a boy. But she had no idea who was who, so when she saw them talking, she was so nervous. **"Um, hi,"** she whispered, terrified. **"I'm Starlight. You must be Stormfly and Meatlug."**

 **"Correct answer,"** the Deadly Nadder replied, not looking up from her chicken. **"What's your point?"**

 **"Oh, don't be so cold to the new girl, Stormfly. I'm sure she's just shy,"** Meatlug soothed. Starlight was shocked.

 **"You can tell that I'm a girl?"** Starlight squealed. **"This is great!"**

 **"Of course we can tell! Why are you so surprised?"** Stormfly asked. **_This new girl is weird,_** she thought.

 **"When I was living with Brenna in the village we grew up in, everyone but Brenna thought I was a boy!"** Starlight told them. **"And when he saw me, Hookfang said that he was so glad I wasn't a girl because you were bad enough!"**

 **"WHAT?"** Stormfly and Meatlug shrieked.

 **"I got so angry I tail-slapped him,"** Starlight told them. Stormfly grinned.

 **"You're not so bad, Starlight,"** Stormfly grinned, nudging the Night Fury's wing. **"Wait. You did aim for the face, right?"**

 **"Yeah, why?"** Starlight asked. The girls squealed and hugged her.

 **"She's one of us!"** Meatlug cheered.

 **"Finally! We needed more girls around here!"** Stormfly whooped.

 **"Thanks, Stormfly,"** Starlight said. **"Has anyone ever called you a boy?"**

 **"Only once,"** Stormfly answered. **"Snotlout said I was a boy because my scales were blue. I pinned him to a wall with my spines."**

 **"It happened to me a lot,"** Meatlug confided. **"But once it was mating season and I came back with my hatchlings, nobody made that mistake again."**

 **"Well, how could they after something like that?"** Starlight joked. The three laughed, and with that, a sisterhood was formed. The ice had melted.

* * *

Eventually, Brenna had finished packing her stuff and was ready to leave for this new place called Berk. It had to be better than her old village, especially if they accepted dragons. But that was only one worry she had out of three; the other two were things she didn't dare confide in to anyone but Starlight. If she opened her big mouth and told someone, they'd get rid of her and Starlight.

 _Or worse,_ an evil voice in her head said. Brenna tried to ignore it, checking the horizon for any sign of land ahead. But that thought never left her mind, no matter how hard she tried.

* * *

 _ **Now the first chapter's up, let me tell you a few things: if you have any questions about Brenna or Starlight, PM me instead of leaving it in the reviews section. I'm not going to spoil anything, though. I will ignore any requests to do with this story, as I have my own idea about how this will go. FT543 out!**_


	2. Adding Starlight to the Book of Dragons

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

When Brenna and Starlight landed on Berk, they were amazed. The teens were right: nearly everyone they saw had a dragon. And these dragons were treated as part of the family, like a son or daughter. They even helped the humans with their jobs, carrying the baskets of fish from the docks or chasing yaks back into the fields. Brenna hugged Starlight with joy. They finally had a place to call home. The island wasn't so bad, but they preferred to live with other people, and now, other dragons.

"So, you like it round here?" Hiccup asked. Brenna and Starlight nodded. The teens continued to walk to the Great Hall, Toothless inching closer to Starlight with every step. Starlight was walking over to Toothless, and eventually, the two bumped heads.

 **"Ow! What was- oh, hey, Starlight,"** Toothless said, all his anger dissipating the moment he realised who bumped into him. **"Sorry."**

 **"No, it's my fault,"** Starlight insisted. **"I should have known something like this might happen."**

 **"Hey, you mind moving?"** Hookfang asked. **"You're causing a blockage."**

 **"Sorry!"** both Night Furies squeaked, as they hurriedly separated. At that point, Stormfly decided that she needed a little girl talk with Starlight.

 **"What happened to you?"** Stormfly asked, as she moved closer to Starlight. **"Are you OK?"**

 **"Fine, fine,"** Starlight told her. **"It wasn't that bad, and Toothless didn't seem hurt. He was actually pretty cool about it."**

 **"You did say that you should have known something like this might happen,"** Stormfly mused. Then she gasped. **"You have a crush on Toothless, don't you?"**

 **"No!"** Starlight denied. Stormfly saw right through her.

 **"Aww, you totally do and you're too shy to admit it! That's so cute!"** Stormfly gushed. **"Is bumping into him your way of flirting with him?"**

 **"It was an accident!"** Starlight lied. Secretly, she was in love with the Night Fury, but one thing confused her. **"Who's Toothless?"**

 **"That's the Night Fury you have a major crush on,"** Stormfly explained. **"We know, it's a silly name, but Toothless doesn't mind. It's the only name he's ever known and he hates being made fun of for it. I did that once and he refused to speak to me for a month until I took back what I'd said!"**

 **"Oh, so that's his name,"** Starlight mused. **"He never told me, and I only know you, Meatlug and Hookfang."**

 **"I'll make sure you're properly introduced, don't worry about it,"** Stormfly soothed. Starlight was relieved.

 **"Thanks, Stormfly,"** Starlight whispered.

 **"Don't mention it,"** Stormfly grinned. **"No, really. Don't mention it, especially around Toothless. He has really good hearing."**

 **"Got it,"** Starlight answered, going over to properly talk to Toothless. Hookfang saw her and gave Toothless a heads up.

 **"Hey, lover-boy, your girlfriend awaits,"** Hookfang teased. Toothless growled.

 **"Shut up and go away!"** Toothless hissed.

 **"Well, that makes sense. Young love needs plenty of space,"** Hookfang grinned, leaving Toothless and Starlight alone . . . well, that's what they thought. What he'd actually done was hide behind a house to watch everything unfold.

 **"Hey, Toothless,"** Starlight nervously greeted, terrified. **"What's your name?"**

 **"It's Toothless, you just said it,"** Toothless answered, confused. **"Why are you asking if you know already?"**

Starlight panicked. **"Oh, I know what your name is. I just wanted to know why you're called this."**

 **"The first time I met Hiccup, my rider, he thought I didn't have any teeth, which explains the name,"** Toothless told her. Starlight was still curious.

 **"How could he possibly think you didn't have any teeth?"** she asked. Toothless grinned and retracted his teeth, exposing his gums.

 **"Does this help?"** Toothless asked. Starlight was confused.

 _ **Toothless, you're an idiot,**_ Hookfang thought, groaning.

 **"Oh, right,"** she whispered in shock, before she returned to her normal voice. **"Wait** **, quick question. What's the name of the green Zippleback that insulted Brenna?"**

 **"That's Barf and Belch,"** Toothless told her. **"Barf is the one that breathes gas, Belch ignites it. I warn you, though, they might try to mess with you because you're new."**

 **"Oh, they're going to mess with me? If they even think about messing with me, they'll wish they never hatched!"** Starlight shouted. Toothless took a step back with shock.

 _ **Starlight, you're an idiot,**_ Stormfly thought, groaning. Hookfang, frustrated, decided to get Toothless out of there.

 **"Oh, there you are, Toothless! You need to come with me,"** Hookfang hurriedly excused, dragging Toothless away.

 **"What?"** Toothless yelped, trying to get away from the Monstrous Nightmare, but Hookfang had it his way. Stormfly had the same idea pretty soon.

 **"Starlight, Meatlug wanted to speak to you,'** she cooed, grabbing Starlight and taking her away.

 **"Hey!"** Starlight whined. **"I was talking to him!"**

" **You were scaring him,"** Stormfly scoffed. **"You were supposed to be introducing yourself!"**

 **"So you're not supposed to do that?"** Starlight asked.

 **"No!"** Stormfly told her. Hookfang was having a similar conversation with Toothless.

 **"What were you thinking, retracting your teeth?"** Hookfang hissed. **"You freaked her out!"**

 **"I thought she'd be able to do that!"** Toothless replied. **"I figured it was a Night Fury thing!"**

 **"You can't just make assumptions like that!"** Hookfang told him. **"What did you think of me when you first met me?"**

 **"I thought you were a jerk and an idiot,"** Toothless replied.

 **"And what do you think of me now?"** Hookfang asked.

 **"I think I was right the first time,"** Toothless answered. Hookfang hit his head against a wall with frustration.

 _ **Time to change tactics, I guess,**_ he thought.

* * *

"Starlight, there you are!" Brenna sighed, accidentally walking in on Stormfly and Starlight's girl talk. "Come on, we have to meet the chief so we can properly live here."

 **"Oh, yeah!"** Starlight remembered. **"Right behind you, Brenna! Come on, Stormfly! Astrid will be there, too!"** Starlight bounded over to Brenna, keeping at her side the entire way.

When the gang entered the Great Hall, everything seemed to stop as the people of Berk looked the new arrivals over. Whispers about a new Night Fury hit Brenna's ears like raindrops. Some people stopped and stared, looking away when Brenna looked at them. Some women scrutinized the hooded blue cloak and silver trimming that she wore that gave nothing away. The whispering stopped completely when Stoick the Vast strode over to meet them.

"Hiccup, you're back!" Stoick smiled, pulling his son in for a tight hug. "And who are the new arrivals?"

"This is Brenna Bloodsword and her dragon, Starlight," Hiccup introduced.

"Pleased to meet you, sir," Brenna said politely. Then, turning to Hiccup, she asked, "Hiccup, who is he? I have no idea."

"That's my father, the chief," Hiccup explained. Brenna gasped, and quickly kneeled on the floor.

"Brenna, it's fine. You don't have to kneel before the chief," Astrid corrected, secretly glad to show the new girl up. Brenna hurriedly stood.

"Sorry, Astrid. I didn't know. Where I came from, if you didn't kneel before the king, you'd be thrown into prison," Brenna told them.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that on Berk," Stoick told her. "Why do you want to live on Berk?"

"I want somewhere to stay that isn't an uninhabited island with only a dragon for company," Brenna answered nonchalantly. "I'm tired of traveling from one place to another and would like a place to put down some proper roots without being chased out because of my dragon."

"You went traveling?" Ruffnut stuttered. "Cool!"

"Brenna, you said you had a dragon," Stoick continued, changing the subject. "Where is she? Or is it a he?"

*Norse **"The word you're looking for is she!"** Starlight corrected. Loud gasps echoed through the whole of the Great Hall. Even the normally stoic Stoick had to take a step back with shock.

"Your dragon can talk? But how?" Stoick asked, incredulous.

"I'm not quite sure how. But she's been able to talk for as long as I've known her," Brenna answered honestly. "She must have learned how to talk from watching the other people we lived with."

"Then why haven't the other dragons learned how to talk?" a random Viking asked.

"I have no idea," Brenna said politely.

"Brenna, you may stay here as long as you like," Stoick decided. "Consider Berk to be your home."

"Thank you, sir," Brenna replied, beaming with unbridled joy. Astrid, in the background, was seething. Here was this crazy girl with her weird Night Fury, who trapped them all on a lonely, distant island, and now she'd have to see her face all the time! She had to keep this Brenna Bloodsword girl away from Hiccup in case she harmed him. But she had to pretend to be happy for her in the meantime.

"Hey, Brenna, want a tour of Berk?" Snotlout asked. "It looks beautiful from above."

"She could always come with me and discuss the plants she has," Fishlegs suggested. "I've got so many questions to ask."

"Leaving her with you? Are you trying to ensure death by boredom?" Tuffnut scoffed. "The new girl is coming with us. We have pranks to plan."

"The sooner she gets a chance to learn the ways of Loki, the better," Ruffnut grinned.

"You know, we've never dealt with a female Night Fury before, and definitely not a talking female Night Fury. Why don't we add her to the Book of Dragons?" Astrid chimed in. Everyone agreed.

"That's a great idea! There's so much more we have to learn about the Night Fury, and all the information we have is about Toothless," Hiccup chirped. "Gathering information from Starlight will make it so much more comprehensive."

Astrid exhaled deeply, getting rid of the breath she didn't know she was holding. Thank Thor Hiccup thought this was a good idea. Just showed that she was the one who knew him best.

"Then it's settled," Astrid decided. "Brenna, once we're out of the Great Hall, saddle up and follow me. Now." Surprised at Astrid's tone, Brenna followed her to a round stone arena that was bare except for a chart she didn't understand. This must be where they trained dragons, and where they'd learn about Starlight.

"Brenna, here is Berk's dragon training arena," Hiccup announced. "We're just going to have Starlight take a few tests so we can learn more about her."

"You're not going to hurt her, are you?" Brenna asked, scared for Starlight's sake.

"Of course not," Hiccup assured. "First, we measure her."

"Ooh, ooh! Can I do this part?" Fishlegs volunteered. "This is so exciting!"

"Go ahead," Brenna decided. Fishlegs hummed a happy time that annoyed Starlight as he measured her wingspan, then the length from her snout to the tip of her tail, all while taking plenty of notes.

"So?" Astrid asked, careful not to make either Starlight or Brenna suspicious of her behaviour. "What have you got?"

"She's slightly smaller than Toothless is, except for her wings which are much larger, her claws are thinner than Toothless' claws and she has no head frills," Fishlegs reported.

"Hey, are you finally done with all the boring stuff? Can we get to the part where stuff gets annihilated?" Snotlout interrupted.

"Yes, Snotlout, now we can test Starlight's firepower," Hiccup admitted. The twins cheered and raced to get targets set up. They occasionally bumped into each other, but they were so happy about stuff getting destroyed they didn't care. Eventually the targets were set up in a straight line, and everyone turned to Brenna and Starlight.

"Sister, you know what to do," Brenna smiled, snapping her fingers. Starlight grinned and fired at the targets, going from left to right. Each shot hit its mark and filled the arena with a thick black smoke that forced everyone to cover their mouths. Once the smoke cleared, everyone got a good look at the pyramids of dust that had once been used as targets. Everyone was impressed, dragons and humans alike.

"That is incredible," Hiccup smiled.

"This has got to be noted down in the Book of Dragons!" Fishlegs squealed.

"Awesome!" Snotlout and the twins cheered.

"Impressive," Astrid complimented.

 **"That was so powerful!"** Stormfly squeaked.

 **"Again, again!"** Barf and Belch encouraged.

 **"That's a lot of firepower for one dragon,"** Hookfang mused. **"Looks like you've got competition, Toothless."**

 **"Shut up, Hookfang,"** Toothless muttered.

 **"Thank you,"** Starlight nodded, almost beside herself with glee. Her friends thought she was cool!

"How long did you have to train for accuracy like this?" Hiccup asked.

"Years," Brenna answered simply.

"So that's how long we'd have to train Barf and Belch to be able to blow stuff up?" Ruffnut asked. Everyone groaned.

"But we'd need more Night Furies for that," Tuffnut disagreed.

"Well, we have a guy Night Fury and a girl Night Fury right here. They can have hatchlings and then you just have to train them to blow stuff up for you," Snotlout suggested.

Everyone glared at Snotlout. Toothless and Starlight's respective jaws dropped at the nerve of Snotlout to suggest it so openly. Hookfang was already teasing them about the idea. Both Night Furies turned away from each other with indignation and embarrassment.

 **"Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad. How hard can it be to deal with Night Fury hatchlings?"** Hookfang laughed.

 **"It's not like the humans wouldn't like the idea,"** Barf chuckled.

 **"I bet they're already preparing a place for the hatchlings to stay and what their names will be and - oh, spike,"** Belch giggled. Eventually, both heads collapsed to the floor, laughing their tails off. Toothless and Starlight had had enough. Both of them aimed a plasma blast at the Zippleback, and both hit their mark. Toothless got Barf. Starlight got Belch.

 **"That was a bit much,"** Barf and Belch chorused before passing out. Toothless and Starlight looked at the unconscious Zippleback, then to each other.

 **"Wow, you're really good,"** both Night Furies commented, before looking away with shock.

 _ **I can't believe she thought I was good!**_ Toothless thought. _**She's the one that's been practicing, not me!**_

 _ **Toothless thought I was good?**_ Starlight wondered. _**So he was paying attention when I was shooting at those targets?**_

 **"Seriously? You still can't talk to each other?"** Hookfang groaned. **"I figured that would get you to start a conversation, or at least say hello!"** Sighing, he stayed away from the Night Furies for the rest of the day. _**There goes that idea. I've got no choice but to seek help from an outside source.**_

* * *

That night, Hookfang snuck out of his pen to meet with Stormfly. They had a common goal and, as much as both of them hated to admit it, couldn't do it alone.

 **"So you came after all,"** Hookfang mused. **"Not so independent, are you?"**

 **"Don't get too smug, Hookfang,"** Stormfly growled. **"If you could do it on your own, you would never have told me."**

 **"Of course I would have told you!"** Hookfang teased. **"How would I have been able to resist rubbing it in your face?"**

 **"Luckily, while you were dreaming of the impossible, I thought of a plan,"** Stormfly told him. **"What we need to do is make them tell each other how much they like each other. Simple!"**

 **"Well, your plan is simple, just not in the way you think it is,"** Hookfang answered. **"Both Night Furies are too embarrassed to dare do something like that. We need to get them to stop thinking completely."**

 **"That is a ridiculous plan!"** Stormfly criticized.

 **"Can't be any worse than yours!"** Hookfang insulted.

 **"Hey, you mind keeping it down?"** Barf and Belch groaned sleepily. Both Hookfang and Stormfly froze with shock. They had been caught.

 **"What are you doing?"** Hookfang hissed.

 **"We could ask you the same question,"** Meatlug replied quickly, hovering out of the shadows. **"Who died and made you town matchmakers?"**

 **"Matchmaker? What are you talking about?"** Stormfly fibbed nervously.

 **"Don't lie to me. I heard you saying that you needed to make them tell each other how much they like each other. I suppose by "them" you meant Toothless and Starlight?"** Meatlug interrogated.

 **"I - you - yep,"** Hookfang agreed.

 **"Good. I wanted to make sure that I heard correctly before I helped you,"** Meatlug told them. Gathering Hookfang, Stormfly, Barf and Belch, she told them her plan.

 **"Why didn't we get you to help us in the first place?"** Hookfang marvelled.

 **"For once, I agree with you. She's way more useful than you are,"** Stormfly praised. Hookfang huffed and turned away from Stormfly, but even he had to admit that the blue Deadly Nadder had a point. Meatlug, unlike them, actually knew what she was talking about.

 **"So, what do we do?"** Barf and Belch asked.

 **"Let me handle all the planning,"** Meatlug soothed. **"Don't worry about a thing. Just go back to your stables and go to sleep."**

 **"But-"** Hookfang interrupted.

 **"Now!"** Meatlug ordered. Sighing, the dragons obeyed.

 _ **This had better be good,**_ Hookfang thought.


	3. Love, pranks, and other odd combinations

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup organised an emergency meeting on Dragon Island to compile what they know about the new arrivals.

"All right, gang, what do we know about them?" Hiccup asked.

"Lived on an island," Snotlout pointed out.

"She went traveling," Ruffnut stated.

"She may have been the one who taught Starlight how to talk," Fishlegs included. "Although she did say Starlight had been able to talk for as long as she had known her, so I'm not sure if it was her."

"She can understand dragons," Astrid added.

"She has a plant with teeth that is totally cool!" Tuffnut cheered, before becoming downcast. "Or it would be if Fishlegs hadn't freaked out and made Brenna keep it away from us."

"It's not like she can take a plant that big with her to Berk, could she?" Fishlegs asked.

"No, but she could have taken seeds because they're tiny," Ruffnut argued. "You know a plant like that could make me interested in botany, because I know I'd want to learn more about a massive plant with teeth." Fishlegs whimpered and tried to hide behind Meatlug, who was asleep.

"Can we not talk about the plant with teeth?" Hiccup asked. "We're getting a little sidetracked."

"We need to leave her with someone who she doesn't see as a threat," Astrid decided. "They can tell us more about her, and we'll use that to build up what we know about her." The rest of the group stared at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"OK, Astrid, if you think this is so easy, then why don't you do it?" Snotlout suggested smugly.

"That sounds like a great suggestion; thanks, Snotlout," Astrid smiled, as she took off. That was a sign that the meeting was over, and the other riders took off for Berk. As he flew, Toothless was thoughtful.

 _ **There's something odd about Brenna, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be a bad thing,**_ he thought. **_Starlight's nice, though. I hope I can get to know her better._**

* * *

Meanwhile, on Berk, Brenna was preparing for a new day in a new village where nobody knew her and she could live a normal life. She was wondering what to do today when Astrid and Stormfly landed in front of her, forcing her to take a step back.

"Astrid?" Brenna stammered.

"Hello, Brenna! How are you doing today?" Astrid smiled. Brenna was confused and a little scared. The first time she had met Astrid, she had tried to attack her and had to be held back by the twins and her boyfriend. Now she was being overly nice. What was going on?

"I'm well, thanks for asking. Why did you want to see me?" Brenna asked.

"Have you worked in a forge before?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, I have. Why do you ask?" Brenna answered.

"Well, I heard that Gobber, the local blacksmith, needs some help in the forge," Astrid sweet-talked. "I hope you wouldn't mind helping him. He has a lot of work to do."

"Oh, I wouldn't mind helping him," Brenna agreed.

"Good. I'll take you to him now, if you want," Astrid decided, grabbing Brenna and taking her in the direction of the forge. Starlight took this moment to walk out of the house to see her rider being dragged out of the house by a crazy blonde girl. She ran over to take Brenna back from her, eventually starting a tug-of-war with Brenna as the rope.

"Ow!" Brenna yelped.

*Norse **"Where are you taking Brenna?"** Starlight growled.

"She is going to work in the forge with Gobber, the local blacksmith," Astrid informed. Starlight thought for a moment, then nodded.

*Norse **"Fine, but I'm coming with her,"** Starlight negotiated.

"Fine," Astrid agreed, figuring that having Brenna and Starlight in the same place at the same time would kill two birds with one stone. Satisfied, Starlight walked alongside her, growling at the people who tried getting too close to her or Brenna. Finally, they reached the forge, where Gobber greeted them.

"Hello, Astrid! How are - who's she?" Gobber asked. "Is that the new lass Stoick told me about?"

"This is Brenna, and after she heard that you were short-handed, she wanted to help you," Astrid told him. This cheered up Gobber immensely.

"Well, isn't that good to hear? Thanks for helping, lass," Gobber smiled. "There's far too much work for one guy to do on his own. I've got 100 axes to forge, 50 swords to repair and 30 maces to assemble, but now you're here, I'll split it in half with you. So you have 50 axes to forge, 25 swords to repair and 15 maces to assemble by the end of the day. Can you handle that, lass?"

"I'll see how much of that I can do," Brenna uneasily replied, searching for Astrid. But she'd flown off long ago, smirking to herself as her plan was completed for her by an unwitting Gobber.

 _This was almost too easy,_ Astrid thought, with a smug undertone.

* * *

Astrid then met up with Hiccup and the rest of the gang, who looked at her with trepidation. "So how'd it go?" Hiccup asked.

"She's working in the forge with Gobber right now, and she's got a massive workload to get through by the end of the day," Astrid reported. "50 axes, 25 swords and 15 maces, if I remember correctly. And it all has to be done by the end of the day."

"Are you sure this a good idea, Astrid?" Fishlegs asked. "I kinda feel bad leaving her with so much work."

"It's only for a day, Fishface," Tuffnut told the beefy boy.

"She'll be fine," Ruffnut snickered.

"At least we know where she is so we can check on her when we need to," Snotlout justified. "Well, that's that sorted. I'm going to go on a flight with my totally cool dragon while you all stay here being miserable and bored." He walked away.

"Thank Thor he's gone," Astrid sighed. Mere moments after she said that, Snotlout came back.

"What have you done with Hookfang?" Snotlout asked. "He's not here."

"He's abandoned you already? Smart dragon," Tuffnut commented, as he got up to check on Barf and Belch. He ran back to the group with a shocked look on his face. "Barf and Belch are gone! All our dragons are gone!"

"What?" Hiccup yelped, rushing outside to check. Tuffnut was right. Every last one of their dragons was gone.

"It's not like Stormfly to disappear," Astrid muttered.

"This isn't normal for Toothless," Hiccup wondered.

"I hope Meatlug's okay," Fishlegs fretted.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Snotlout said cockily. "At least, my dragon will be. Not sure about yours, though." Astrid punched him. "Ow!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Hookfang, Barf and Belch were taking Toothless to the arena, far away from any curious, prying eyes, which was exactly what they wanted. Toothless was blissfully unaware of any ulterior motives his friends had. **"Why do we have to do this again?"** Toothless asked.

 **"Relax; it's just a bet,"** Hookfang dismissed. **"I wanna see if your accuracy is as good as you say it is. Anyway, I hope you like losing."**

 **"And the same to you,"** Toothless smiled. As Hookfang and Toothless fired shots at the targets painted on the wall, Stormfly and Meatlug were tasked with collecting Starlight.

 **"'How hard can it possibly be to find a Night Fury in broad daylight? You'll be fine!' Oh, I'll show him fine,"** Stormfly muttered, as Meatlug tried to calm her down.

 **"Easy, Stormfly, we have a job to get on with,"** Meatlug told her. **"Besides, wherever Starlight is, Brenna is, so she shouldn't be that hard to find."**

 **"I suppose,"** Stormfly sighed, as they flew over the forge. **"There! In the forge!"**

 **"I told you!"** Meatlug chirped, as they landed. **"Hey, Starlight!"**

 **"Meatlug!"** Starlight chirped. **"You have no idea how boring it is!"**

 **"Wanna come with us?"** Stormfly proposed. Starlight agreed immediately.

 **"Wait there,"** she told them, as she went to find Brenna slaving over a sword. **"Brenna, I'm going out for a little while with Meatlug and Stormfly. You don't mind, do you?"** Brenna, too tired to listen to Starlight properly, nodded. Satisfied, Starlight reported back to Stormfly and Meatlug. **"She's fine with it. Let's go!"**

The three dragons flew to the arena, but it wasn't long until problems started. The moment Starlight saw Toothless, she was immediately nervous. Toothless saw her and had the same problem.

 **"You didn't tell me Toothless was going to be here,"** Starlight hissed to Stormfly.

 **"You didn't tell me Starlight was going to be here,"** Toothless hissed to Hookfang.

 **"Of course we didn't tell you! We needed you to both be here at the same time,"** Hookfang explained. **"And now we need to get you to stay here."**

 **"What?"** Starlight and Toothless squeaked. But before they could get away, Hookfang and Stormfly locked them into a nearby dragon pen, locking the door behind them and barricading the Night Furies inside. Angry protests could be heard from inside. Stormfly was startled at first, and stuck a few of her spines into the door. Hookfang tried to burn them, but he just left behind burn marks.

 **"What do we do now?"** Barf and Belch asked.

 **"Everyone out!"** Meatlug ordered, and they flew as fast and as far as their wings could carry them. Meanwhile, Starlight and Toothless were trying to figure out how to get out of the dragon pen. This would take some time, since dragon pens only locked from the outside. They were stuck.

 **"What was that for?"** Starlight ranted, the moment she heard the other dragons leaving. **"This was shaping up to be a perfectly good day before I got locked up with a weirdo that can hide his teeth and pretend to be a hatchling!"**

 **"Well, pardon me for thinking that was a Night Fury thing and you'd be able to do it, too!"** Toothless snapped, without thinking. **"How was I supposed to know that you'd freak out about Barf and Belch teasing you for being new and threaten to tear them limb from limb?"**

 **"I thought they'd try to hurt me or Brenna!"** Starlight justified. **"Besides, I don't even really know any of you except for Stormfly and Meatlug! I didn't think they'd do this to me!"**

 **"Wait, Stormfly did this?"** Toothless asked, shocked. **"I thought that it was Hookfang and Barf and Belch who wanted to lock me in a dragon pen with a beautiful Night Fury female!"** It wasn't until Toothless thought about what he said that he tried to get out of the dragon pen and away from Starlight, who probably thought he was crazy and she should stay far away from him and-

 **"Toothless, did you just call me beautiful?"** Starlight asked, not quite believing what she was hearing. Toothless was uncharacteristically lost for words.

 **"Yes! I mean no! I mean you're really beautiful and I have a huge crush on you!"** Toothless blurted out. _**Spike! Why can't I control what comes out of my mouth?**_ he thought.

 **"Well, Toothless, since you really feel that way about me, I might as well be honest. I . . . really like you too,"** Starlight confessed, blushing profusely underneath her scales. Toothless was ecstatic, along with being a little bit light-headed. Starlight said she liked him! Like, really, really liked him!

 **"Really? But I thought you hated me and thought I was weird and dumb!"** Toothless explained. Starlight couldn't take any more, and placed a paw over Toothless' mouth. All words left him, and under his scales, Toothless turned pale. His green eyes glazed over. All he heard was Starlight's voice.

 **"Toothless, I want you to know that I'm really, really sorry,"** Starlight told him. **"I was acting weird because I was nervous. You understand that, right?"**

 **"Of course I do!"** Toothless reassured. **"That basically explains everything I did, too. So, we're good, right?"**

 **"Right,"** Starlight agreed. **"Well, other than being stuck in here, I guess."** The two giggled. **"Is there any way out?"**

 **"Not without a key, I think,"** Toothless told her. **"These dragon pens are ridiculous! Why is it that just about anyone can lock us in, but you need a human to get us out?"**

 **"I agree,"** Starlight said, sighing as she settled down. **"I guess we've just got to wait now."**

* * *

Meanwhile, at the forge, Brenna had completed her work and Gobber was impressed. "Thanks, lass," Gobber smiled, letting Brenna go. "You've done your share of work, and I can't keep you here any longer. You're good at this, you know."

"Thank you, sir," Brenna smiled. "Well, I must be off. I still have to cook dinner for me and Starlight." She turned to where she'd last seen Starlight, but saw only an empty space. "Wait, where's Starlight?" She was about to panic, before remembering that Starlight had gone with Stormfly and Meatlug earlier and they might know where she is. "I'll ask around. Bye, Gobber!" She ran off to search for Stormfly and Meatlug.

On her search for Stormfly and Meatlug in an effort to search for Starlight, Brenna ran into Astrid. "Brenna, our dragons are gone," Astrid told her. "Have you seen them anywhere?"

"No, I haven't. In fact, I was looking for Starlight after she left the forge with Stormfly and Meatlug," Brenna replied. "How about we check the arena? They might be there."

"You might be right," Astrid acknowledged, not trusting Brenna at all. "I'll come with you. Safety in numbers, after all." Brenna nodded, and the girls went to the arena.

"There's nothing there," Brenna remarked, unwittingly stating the obvious. "Other than proof of a fight."

"So you were wrong," Astrid told Brenna, smug even if her face didn't show it. Starlight woke up when she heard Brenna's voice and began screaming for help.

*Norse **"Brenna, help! We're here!"** she screamed. **"We got locked in! Help!"** Astrid and Brenna heard her loud and clear.

"That sounds like Starlight!" Brenna gasped, rushing over to the dragon pen and sliding back the ultra-strong deadbolt to release the exhausted Night Furies, who looked like they were at their wits' end and had no more energy left in them. "What were you two doing in there?"

*Norse **"What part of 'locked in' don't you understand?"** Starlight groaned. **"Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, Barf and Belch totally owe me an explanation!"**

"Oh, they did this? I should've known," Astrid growled. "Where are they?"

*Norse **"Don't know,"** Starlight moaned. **"I don't even know how long we've been in there. It feels like days."** And with that, she passed out.

"What?" Astrid hissed. "Oh, Stormfly is in so much trouble!" And with that, Astrid stormed off, leaving Brenna with two exhausted Night Furies who just wanted to go home and sleep after an exhausting day full of revelations. As the fiery blonde stormed out, she ran into Hiccup.

"Astrid, what a surprise," Hiccup sighed. "Have you seen Toothless?"

"He's in there. Him and Starlight got locked in by our dragons as a prank," Astrid reported. "He looks pretty bushed, and Starlight's not looking any better."

"Our dragons did this to them?" Hiccup squeaked. "Oh, no. We're supposed to be making a good impression on the new girl, and now our dragons are pranking her dragon!"

"They also pranked your dragon," Astrid informed. "Starlight and Toothless were locked in a dragon pen together for hours. Starlight told me Stormfly, Meatlug and Hookfang were involved."

"Let's check where they'd normally go. There's the cove, Raven's Point and-" Astrid stopped him.

"Why should we go to them when they can come to us?" the blonde Valkyrie proposed, leading Hiccup to the arena.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked. Astrid smirked, before taking a basket of fish, holding it up for a solid five seconds . . . and let it fall to the floor, spilling all the fish.

Within seconds, Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang Barf and Belch swooped down and fought over the fish, wanting to eat as much of it as they could. They wanted to play with Hiccup and Astrid, but when they saw how mad they looked, they backed away.

 **"Uh oh,"** Stormfly squeaked.

 **"We are in so much trouble,"** Hookfang muttered under his breath.

"Oh, am I glad to see you!" Astrid glared. "I just found Starlight and Toothless inside a dragon pen, and I heard that you played a part in putting them there! Now, who helped you?" Stormfly shifted from one foot to the other with guilt. Hookfang found a very interesting wall to stare at. Barf and Belch looked at the ground. Only Meatlug looked her in the eye. "Well?"

"If you've got anything to do with this, step forward now," Hiccup instructed. Guiltily, all four dragons stepped forward. Hookfang, Stormfly and Barf and Belch were giving Astrid and Hiccup the infamous 'hatchling eyes' as a silent plea for leniency. Neither human bought it.

"Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch, you are all on limpets for a month," Hiccup instructed. These three dragons that were now condemned to limpets hung their heads in shame, before realizing something.

 **"Hey, how can Meatlug get away with this and we can't?"** Stormfly asked, nudging the Gronckle forward. Astrid saw what her dragon was doing and glared at her.

"Stormfly, now you're just going from bad to worse," Astrid reprimanded. "First you lock Toothless and Starlight in a dragon pen, then you try to blame Meatlug, who didn't even do anything!"

 **"Didn't do anything, my tail!"** Stormfly growled. **"She planned all of this!"**

"I'd better not hear about you doing anything like this again," the blonde warned. "Come on, Stormfly, home." And the angry warrior girl took her miscreant dragon home on foot. She was too mad to fly, and the distance was too short, anyway. On her way, they ran into Gobber.

"Ah, Astrid, good to see ya," Gobber greeted. "I need to talk to you about the new lass who's been helpin' me. Brenna, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, why?" Astrid asked. _She didn't mess up, did she?_ she thought.

"That was actually a really good idea!" Gobber beamed. "She works really fast and the weapons she produces is great! She works faster than me!"

"Glad to know I could help, Gobber," Astrid smiled, secretly even more ticked off than before. Having to hear praise about the new girl was not something she expected to hear. . . or wanted to hear. Still, she continued to walk home, keeping one hand on Stormfly's neck. That dragon was going to get used to the taste of limpets if she had anything to do with it. She did her best to forget about it as she continued home.

And that was when she ran into Snotlout and the twins.

"Hey babe, you seen my dragon anywhere?" Snotlout asked, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Don't look so nervous, Astrid. Do you think these muscles would let anyone hurt you?"

"Hookfang, Barf and Belch are in the arena," Astrid informed them, ignoring the other thing Snotlout had told her as she removed his arm from her shoulder. "They locked Toothless and Starlight in a dragon pen and left them there for hours."

"Who's Starlight?" Tuffnut asked. Ruffnut punched him. "Ow!"

"That's the girl Night Fury, remember?" Ruffnut hissed.

"Oh, yeah," Tuffnut replied.

"Wait, our dragons locked her in a dragon pen? Brenna's going to hate me!" Snotlout yelped, running to the arena in a panic while dragging the twins behind him. "Bye, Astrid!"

"Bye, Snotlout," Astrid called, a little confused at Snotlout's sudden change. _Well, at least they're gone,_ she thought, as she led Stormfly to her pen, got her some limpets and went to bed. She fell asleep rather quickly.

Once Stormfly's sharp ears heard the sound of quiet snuffling telling her her rider was fast asleep, she snuck out of her pen through a self-made back entrance Astrid didn't know about and went to meet Barf, Belch and Hookfang. **"Have you seen Meatlug anywhere?"** she asked.

 **"We're still looking for her, actually,"** Barf and Belch chorused. **"But she's not here."**

 **"Of course she's not here; this is the arena! Check Fishlegs' house, idiots!"** Stormfly yelled, taking off for the Ingerman household, the boys in hot pursuit. They found Meatlug innocently looking for where Fishlegs kept the granite . . . and that was when they pounced, pinning her down in seconds.

 **"Hey!"** Meatlug yelped. **"Watch where you're putting those claws!"**

 **"We want answers, Meatlug,"** Stormfly commanded. **"Why would they punish us, but not you?"**

 **"Yeah!"** Hookfang agreed. **"What do you have that we don't?"**

 **"A clean record,"** Meatlug answered. **"Hookfang, you've started fires all over Berk, Stormfly has gotten into so many chicken coops, she's banned from every farm on Berk, and the less said about all the explosions Barf and Belch have been involved in, the better! The idea that you would lock Toothless and Starlight in a dragon pen isn't that far-fetched to most. But I have no prior record of ever breaking the rules, not once! They'd never suspect well behaved Meatlug to do something like prank the newest dragon to the island!"**

 **"Letting us get the blame for something you planned isn't fair!"** Barf protested.

 **"We're going to tell Toothless and Starlight everything you told us first thing tomorrow!"** Belch promised.

 **"If that's how you want to play it,"** Meatlug replied, wriggling free and sneaking back into Fishlegs' room through the window.

 **"I had no idea Meatlug could be so sneaky,"** Stormfly muttered.

 **"We'll see how smug she is tomorrow, Stormfly,"** Hookfang replied. **"Until then, let's get back home before someone notices we're gone."**

Three dragons flew away in different directions from the Ingerman household that night, seen and heard by nobody.


	4. Surprises and meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

2nd A/N: As of now, I am incorporating the main idea from another fanfic of mine, _The writing on the wall,_ meaning Toothless can read and write. Just roll with it.

* * *

Brenna was woken up annoyingly early the next day by the sound of Terrible Terrors chirping on her roof. She groaned as the noise started to get louder. Eventually, she'd had enough and threw open her window, startling the Terrible Terrors.

*Dragonese "Look you two, I don't mind you being on my roof, but not when I'm sleeping. Keep it down," Brenna told them. Long story short, they freaked out.

 **"She knows what we're saying!"** one shrieked.

 **"What if all of them know what we're saying?"** his friend replied. **"Or if she tells the other humans what we're saying? We better leave her** **alone or we'll be in deep trouble!"** They took off in a hurry.

Brenna giggled as she watched the spooked Terrible Terrors fly away. If all dragons reacted the way they did to her speaking Dragonese, then she was going to have a lot of fun. She got changed into a simple mid-thigh blue dress with a grey top and black trousers underneath and went to wake Starlight.

"Hey, girl," she whispered. "Up and at 'em, Starlight. It's a brand new day."

 **"How are you awake so early?"** Starlight asked.

"Got woken up by some Terrible Terrors," Brenna replied. "You can blame them for this particularly early morning."

 **"Oh, well, it's not like I'll be able to get back to sleep after this,"** Starlight decided, getting up. **"Wait, where's breakfast?"**

"Still in the ocean," Brenna told her. Starlight frowned, then smiled.

 **"Guess we'll have to get it out, then,"** Starlight grinned. **"What are we waiting for?"** Brenna fitted Starlight's saddle, grabbed a barrel, and took off.

They flew as fast as possible to a fishing spot that they knew always had lots of haddock and cod. It wasn't too far from the island they'd been living in for the last two years, so they camped out there so both of them could catch their breath. Once they settled down, they realized something that would make the chore of catching fish a lot easier. The island still had plenty of animal traps, mostly for fish, but there were some for deer and wild boars and the occasional bear and wolf. They could get their lunch from there!

They checked the traps, and to their joy, most had fish! That would be enough for Starlight's breakfast and lunch! Happily, Starlight dove into her breakfast, while Brenna ate some bread and an apple that she'd managed to salvage before leaving. The portion that would later be Starlight's lunch would be packed into the barrel and carried home.

Once they got back, they were just in time to watch Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch tuck into a depressing breakfast of limpets in the arena. Starlight was pleased to see them get their comeuppance, and even more pleased to see Toothless. To Brenna's surprise, Starlight veered off course, dropping Brenna off outside the arena and went to talk to Toothless.

 **"Hey, Toothless!"** Starlight smiled, landing next to him. **"How are you?"**

 **"Good,"** Toothless replied. **"But watching those three eat limpets just makes it even better."**

 **"I know,"** Starlight grinned. Hookfang couldn't take it any more.

 **"Toothless, Starlight, we have something to say to you,"** Hookfang said. Toothless and Starlight looked at him angrily.

 **"The next thing out of your mouth had better be that you're sorry,"** Toothless growled.

 **"Locking us in a dragon pen for hours like that was totally uncalled for,"** Starlight reprimanded.

 **"I need to tell you what happened that day,"** Hookfang explained. **"You know the stuff that you thought we planned? Well, actually, it was Meatlug. She planned all of it, told us what to do and then set us up so she didn't have to eat limpets. It's not us you need to get mad at, it's her!"**

 **"Hookfang's right!"** Stormfly told the Night Furies. **"She took over all the planning once she found out we wanted to prank you! She didn't tell us anything until the very last minute!"**

 **"She's totally guilty!"** Barf and Belch chorused. Starlight and Toothless looked at Meatlug, innocently eating her food, then at their nervously grinning friends, and came to a conclusion - they were riddled with guilt and were in a stage of denial. They were instantly filled with sympathy for their clearly insane friends.

 **"Look, I know you all feel guilty about what you did, but that's no reason to blame Meatlug,"** Toothless responded calmly.

 **"What?"** Hookfang yelped.

 **"You've gotta be kidding me,"** Stormfly squeaked.

 **"You know, what confuses me is why you'd try to blame someone who would _never_ try to do anything this crazy to us,"** Starlight soothed. **"Sure, she was there, I'll admit that, but she could have been trying to talk you out of it, for all I know."**

 **"I - you - but - we - "** Barf and Belch stammered.

 **"I'd like to talk to you longer, but I have to go,"** Toothless said, politely excusing himself. **"Hiccup promised me we'd go on a flight first thing after breakfast, and I don't want him to forget."** And with that, Toothless sauntered out.

 **"And I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be at home. See ya!"** Starlight chirped, flying out to meet a pissed-off Brenna.

*Dragonese "What took you so long?" Brenna asked.

 **"Just catching up on a few things with my new friends,"** Starlight replied. Brenna thought nothing of it, hopping onto Starlight's back as they flew off, leaving Hookfang, Stormfly, Barf and Belch with a very smug Meatlug, who had a wide grin on her face.

 **"Well, it's not like you weren't warned,"** Meatlug replied, as she ate her lunch calmly.

Stormfly had an idea. **"Hey, Meatlug, if we have to suffer, then you do, too. You planned all this, after all. So, how about you give us half your lunch. You know, as payment for taking the blame?"**

 **"Half my lunch, you say?"** Meatlug repeated. Stormfly, Hookfang Barf and Belch nodded. **"Are you sure?"**

 **"Yes!"** Stormfly confirmed.

 **"Really sure?"** Meatlug repeated.

 **"She honestly thought she'd won,"** Hookfang mused. **"Not so smug now, is she?"**

 **"Way to go, Stormfly!"** Barf and Belch cheered.

 **"Yes, Meatlug,"** Stormfly replied, gritting her teeth. Meatlug was getting on her last nerve.

 **"Really, really sure?"** Meatlug asked.

 **"Yes, I'm sure, Meatlug!"** Stormfly yelled, finally losing her patience. **"Now stop stalling and fork it over!"**

 **"If you insist,"** Meatlug smiled, tipping over her basket of food so her friends could have some. Only, for some reason, they didn't want any of it.

 **"So, this is your breakfast, Meatlug?"** Stormfly asked. She didn't feel so clever now. None of them did. They'd forgotten that Meatlug was fond of eating big lumps of granite.

 **"Yes, it is,"** Meatlug told them, smiling. **"Still want some?"**

 **"No, thank you, Meatlug, but thanks for asking. I'd . . . err . . . forgotten about all the limpets Snotlout left for me,"** Hookfang hurriedly replied, sticking his face into the pile of limpets.

 **"Not bad, you know,"** Stormfly sheepishly agreed, forcing down a mouthful of the vile seafood. Barf and Belch were already eating. Meatlug smiled sweetly as her friends swallowed their breakfast and their pride.

 **"How's your breakfast, guys?"** Meatlug asked innocently. Well, it would be innocent, if she wasn't grinning so much.

 **"Not bad,"** Hookfang replied, feeling ashamed.

 **"Can't complain,"** Barf and Belch chorused.

 **"Could be worse,"** Stormfly said. Meatlug grinned as she finished her granite and flew off.

 **"Suckers,"** she muttered under her breath. **"First rule of being a dragon: never steal a meal from a Boulder class dragon unless you want to break your teeth."** Once she saw Fishlegs coming back with a final lump of granite for her, she ditched the calculating mastermind image to pounce on her rider and cover him in licks and dragon-sized puppy kisses.

"Meatlug, good to see you too!" Fishlegs choked out, as he practically suffocated under his dragon's weight. "How would you like to explore the forest's fauna and flora?"

 **"I suppose it could be worse,"** Meatlug decided, as she tossed the granite into her mouth and flew away. Hookfang, Barf, Belch and Stormfly stared on with disbelief.

 **"I can't believe she could be so sneaky,"** Hookfang muttered.

 **"I never knew she could do that,"** Stormfly blurted out. Just then, Astrid walked into the arena with Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. The three dragons hurriedly swallowed the last of the limpets.

"Hookfang, do you have any idea what you've done?" Snotlout yelled. "Locking a new dragon inside a dragon pen before her and her rider have even been on this island a week? You should be ashamed of yourself!" Hookfang took an involuntary step back from shock. He hadn't seen Snotlout this angry since that time when Snotlout caught him sharpening his claws on his favourite sword. Something about what he helped to do really riled Snotlout up. But what?

"Stormfly, I thought you knew better than this," Astrid scolded. "And how do you even know how to lock a dragon pen, anyway? I'll have to talk to Hiccup about better locks for the dragon pens so this doesn't happen again."

"Seriously, you two? You decided to go and prank the newest dragon here?" Tuffnut chastised. "This is disgraceful behaviour."

"Yeah, it is disgraceful . . . that you didn't let us in on this," Ruffnut grinned. "We could have helped you!"

"Ruffnut!" Astrid glared at the twins.

"I mean, I'm very disappointed in you," Ruffnut corrected.

"Honestly, couldn't you have waited for her to get settled in before you pranked her?" Tuffnut complained. "Doing something like this might make her wary of all pranks forever, and then she'll be no fun at all to mess with. For Thor's sake, what were you two thinking?"

"Tuffnut!" Astrid scolded.

"What?" both twins asked.

"Don't get us wrong, Astrid, we know that our dragon pranking the new dragon is very, very wrong," Ruffnut explained. "Just not for the same reason as you. So we are trying to help to do something good. You _have_ to give us that."

"Anyone knows that you have to let someone settle in before you go through the motions of pranking them," Tuffnut clarified. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go and discipline our dragon. Bye!" And with that, the Thorston twins had jumped onto Barf and Belch and flown off.

"Ugh! What is up with them?" Astrid asked the air. But as far as Snotlout was concerned, Astrid was asking him.

"No idea, babe," Snotlout replied. "I guess they're the most irresponsible dragon riders Berk has to offer. But don't get too pessimistic, Astrid, because at least you still have-OW!" Snotlout let out a howl of pain as Astrid twisted his arm.

"You're really not any better than they are," Astrid pointed out. "Besides, your dragon was involved in it, too. That was where the scorch marks on the door were from." And with that, she hopped onto Stormfly and flew home. Snotlout grumbled as he got onto Hookfang's back.

"Come on, Hookfang," he muttered. "We have to go."

 **"Aww, did Astrid reject you again?"** Hookfang taunted. Snotlout had no idea what Hookfang had said and ignored him completely. **"Oh, don't bail out on me now, Thor dammit! I still need to talk to a certain set of Night Furies about a prank I only had a small part in!"** Snotlout landed Hookfang outside the Great Hall and decided to stay there and at least pretend to be interested in the axe throwing. In reality, he was thinking about Brenna. What if she hated him for what his dragon did?

 _Why am I even thinking about the new girl, anyway?_ Snotlout asked himself. _It would be better for me to focus on a local girl, like Astrid or maybe Ruffnut._ He put it out of his mind that neither girl was taking any interest in anything to do with him, except for beating him up whenever they deemed him to be too gross for them to take, which happened at least twice a week. As Snotlout stayed in the Great Hall, Hookfang took to looking for Starlight and Toothless, who turned out to be in the same place (Lars Lake), talking quite happily as they discussed the stupid things their humans did. _**They may be mad about the prank that I definitely only had a tiny part in, but it must have worked if they're finally talking to each other,**_ Hookfang thought.

 **"I know my human's smart, but he can be really odd sometimes, especially in the mornings,"** Toothless said. **"Hiccup's the type of person who stays up all night sketching inventions and then complains the next day that he didn't get enough sleep and needs a lie-in."**

 **"And I thought my human was dumb,"** Starlight giggled. **"Brenna keeps a bunch of crazy plants that do weird things. I don't like to mess with them myself. One of them has a bunch of teeth that are bigger and sharper than my own teeth, and she gets mad that it bites her!"**

 **"It bit her?"** Toothless repeated, shocked. **"Wait, hold on a second. I know that Brenna had a plant with teeth from what Fishlegs said, but I can't believe that it actually bit Brenna!"**

 **"Oh, it did,"** Starlight assured. **"There's a massive bite mark on her shoulder that is always covered up by her clothes. But if the twins asked her about it, she'd probably show it to them. They seem like the type to not listen unless they got a big shock."**

 **"You got that right,"** Hookfang agreed. Both Night Furies were startled, but quickly growled and unsheathed their claws.

 **"What are you doing here?"** Toothless asked.

 **"And how did you find us?"** Starlight growled.

 **"Well, it's not like you two are the quietest dragons I know,"** Hookfang explained. **"Look, wait outside the arena tonight. We need to talk to you."** And with that, the Monstrous Nightmare flew off. The two Night Furies looked at each other curiously.

 **"Should we go?"** Starlight asked. **"I'm not too sure about Hookfang. He seems mean and I don't want to go on my own."**

 **"I'll go with you, if you want,"** Toothless offered, as much of a gentleman as his rider. **"Hookfang can pull some really crazy stunts when he wants to, but he'd never deliberately hurt anyone. I'll stay close to you, just in case things get a little crazy."**

 **"Really?"** Starlight asked, hugging Toothless and nuzzling him. **"Oh, thank you so much!"**

 **"You're welcome, Starlight,"** Toothless smiled. _**She must really like me,**_ Toothless thought. **_All I have to do is not mess it up and I guess I'll be fine._** The two left Lars Lake together, walking rather than flying. Starlight walked because she didn't want to leave Toothless on his own. Toothless walked because he didn't have his prosthetic tailfin, taking flying off the table for him. They ended up walking over to the forge, where they were greeted by Hiccup.

"Hey, you two," Hiccup greeted. "Where have you been, bud?" Toothless wrote an answer.

LARS LAKE. WHY?

"Just curious, bud," Hiccup replied. Starlight was staring at Toothless, then at the floor, then to Toothless again.

 **"How are you able to do that?"** she stammered. **"I've never seen anything like it in my life. Who taught you?"**

 **"Hiccup taught me this,"** Toothless answered. **"He would read books to me sometimes to see if I could link the pictures to real life dragons. Instead, I learned how to read and write. I think it might have backfired onto him a little bit."**

 **"Why didn't you tell me this, Toothless?"** Starlight asked. **"This is actually pretty cool!"**

 **"But it's not as cool as talking, though,"** Toothless admitted. **"People notice you for it and some dragons tease me about being nerdy."** Starlight nuzzled him affectionately, making him fall silent.

 **"They can say what they want. I think it's cool,"** Starlight replied, as she flew home. Hiccup leaned out of the window of the forge to tease his lovestruck dragon.

"Toothless, have you ever entertained the possibility that Starlight might like you?" Hiccup teased. Toothless wrote back fast.

HAVE YOU EVER ENTERTAINED THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOUR TUNIC MIGHT BE ON FIRE?

"What?" Hiccup yelped, checking his tunic for smoke. (Logical reasoning, since where there's smoke, there's fire.) But there was none, and Hiccup stared angrily at Toothless, who was snickering at him. "Oh, thanks a bunch, you useless reptile. Good to know that you're still willing to be annoying, even with a new girl in your life."

I SAID IT MIGHT BE. I NEVER SAID IT WAS.

"Oh, nice one, bud," Hiccup grumbled, as he got back to work. "Thor, I wish I'd never taught you about how sarcasm worked. It's caused me nothing but annoyance ever since." He pursed his lips and started pounding red-hot metal.

IF YOU KEEP POUTING, MAYBE ASTRID WILL COME AND KISS YOU TO MAKE IT ALL BETTER. KEEP IT UP, HICCUP.

"Toothless, will you stop that?" Hiccup scowled, as the Night Fury snickered. "You do not need to be teasing me about this. Why don't you go and talk to Starlight a little bit more, huh?" Toothless looked at Hiccup like he was an idiot. "Never mind."

* * *

Starlight arrived home and let herself in through the unusually large window in her room. Yes, her room; Brenna and Starlight had moved into a house that was supposed to be for a large family, so there were enough rooms for Brenna and Starlight to each have their own rooms, along with a few storage rooms. She was originally going to pretend she'd been in the house the entire time, but she came into some bad luck by bumping into Brenna, who was cleaning the room for her beloved Night Fury friend. "Where have you been?" Brenna asked, making Starlight stop in her tracks.

 **"Errr . . . fishing with Stormfly?"** Starlight lied. Brenna raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical.

"Let me rephrase that. Where have you actually been?" Brenna asked.

 **"Hanging out near a lake,"** Starlight replied. _**Well, it's not like I'm lying, right? I was near a lake . . . I just didn't mention Toothless was with me.**_

"Were you with anyone at the time?" Brenna asked. Starlight tensed up, and Brenna knew that she had her. "Starlight, is there something you weren't telling me?"

 **"No,"** Starlight replied slowly.

"No, you weren't with anyone, or no, there isn't something you aren't telling me?" Brenna pressed. "You aren't lying to me, are you?" Starlight cracked.

 **"Fine, you've got me. I was with Toothless at Lars Lake,"** Starlight admitted. Brenna grinned.

"Didn't know you'd get a boyfriend that quickly," she teased. "So, how did the date go?"

 **"It wasn't a date!"** Starlight stammered. **"We just went somewhere to talk in private."**

"Sounds an awful lot like a date to me," Brenna remarked. "You know, what with the privacy and the deep conversation and stuff."

 **"Oh, shut up!"** Starlight snapped, blushing underneath her scales. **"And would you mind letting me sleep in peace?"** Brenna knew then to stop the interrogation and left to go to bed, changing into a simple nightgown and falling asleep. Starlight waited until she could hear Brenna's soft snores, and then snuck out of the house the same way she snuck in. She then flew out of the house to the arena, but Toothless wasn't there. In fact, nobody was there. Maybe this was another prank and they were all laughing at her from inside their houses. The time seemed to crawl by, and Starlight began to lose hope. Dejected, she was about to take off and fly home, only to hear footsteps. She pricked up her ears and hid somewhere, only to see Toothless walking up to the entrance of the arena.

 **"Uh, hello?"** Toothless called. **"Starlight? Hookfang? Stormfly? Any-MMMPH!"** He was interrupted by a paw being placed roughly over his mouth. A Night Fury's paw that wasn't his own.

 **"Don't freak out, Toothless; It's me, Starlight,"** Starlight hissed. **"What took you so long?"**

 **"I can't fly on my own. This prosthetic tailfin isn't built for solo flying, so I had to walk,"** Toothless explained. **"I'm sorry I left you out here on your own for so long."**

 **"It's fine; you couldn't help it,"** Starlight smiled, nuzzling him. The two smiled, getting lost in each other's eyes. It could have blossomed into a really romantic moment for the duo . . . until Hookfang, Stormfly, Barf and Belch showed up.

 **"Oh, I'm sorry, did I spoil a romantic moment for you two?"** Hookfang taunted, as Stormfly, Barf and Belch stifled laughter. **"Ugh, whatever. We have to talk to you about the prank."**

 **"For the last time, you two, this wasn't our plan! None of us ever wanted this to happen, I promise! Please listen to us!"** Stormfly pleaded. Toothless and Starlight came to a conclusion: their friends were filled with so much guilt over it, it was literally driving them mad.

 **"It's perfectly all right, guys. We already forgave you earlier today anyway,"** Starlight told them.

 **"Really?"** Barf and Belch chorused, shocked. Usually they talked in unison to annoy people, but this time, they couldn't help it. They were in shock.

 **"Of course!"** Toothless assured. **"I wouldn't want to hold this over you, especially not after how stressed it's made you!"**

 **"Oh, it's good to know that you're willing to put this behind - wait, what?!"** Hookfang yelped.

 **"Of course I wouldn't want you to be worried about whether or not we hate you. Let's just forget about this and move on,"** Starlight proposed. Hookfang, Stormfly, Barf and Belch looked at each other in shock . . . before deciding to roll with it.

 **"Absolutely!"** Hookfang agreed.

 **"Thank you so much!"** Stormfly babbled. Barf and Belch sagged. Both Night Furies bought it.

 **"So we all agree to forget about this?"** Starlight asked. Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch nodded.

 **"Great! Now this is all sorted, I'm going home,"** Toothless decided, walking off. Starlight also left, flying away to sneak into the house she'd snuck out of earlier. Everyone else took this as a sign to also leave, saying hurried goodbyes. Hookfang was the last to leave, and his route took him past Brenna's house, where he heard a peculiar noise. Hookfang had heard a noise like this once before, and that was at Snoggletog, when a man was playing a flute for a crowd of (drunk) Vikings. But this sounded much better than the man who played at Snoggletog. He wanted to stay and listen to more, but he had to go home. He didn't want to stay out too late and look suspicious.


	5. A shock and a revelation

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

The next day, Brenna was woken by a dragon. Not by Terrible Terrors like yesterday morning, but by a very hungry Starlight. **"Hey, where's my breakfast?"** Starlight whined. **"I'm hungry, Brenna! Get your red-headed butt out of bed and get me some fish!"**

"Oh, shut up!" Brenna groaned, taking the pillow out from under her head and hitting the Night Fury round the head with it. "Let me sleep, for Thor's sake! Get your own breakfast for once!"

 **"Why can't you do it for me?"** Starlight whined. **"Please, Brenna? I'm absolutely starving!"** Starlight, in an attempt to sway Brenna's conscience her way, broke out the infamous puppy-dog eyes, a tool used by every dragon to get what they wanted. Brenna cracked.

"Fine, I'll get it for you!" Brenna agreed, as Starlight flashed a smug grin in her direction. "Lazy, greedy dragon."

 **"Aww, I love you too, Brenna,"** Starlight teased. Brenna growled as she got out of bed, sighing as she heard Starlight snicker at her bedhead. She'd have to fix that later. But now she had to get Starlight her breakfast. Brenna dragged a basket, filled almost to overflowing with cod, out of the shed and left it in the kitchen.

"Starlight, your breakfast is in the kitchen," Brenna called, as she prepared her own breakfast: a big hunk of bread, some yak milk and an apple. She also cooked some fish (that she'd swiped from Starlight's basket) to properly tide her over. She finished the bread and apple and was about to put the fish onto a plate when she saw Starlight staring at it hungrily, licking her lips as she fed herself with raw cod. "What's so interesting about my breakfast?"

 **"I just realized fish smells really nice when it's cooked,"** Starlight daydreamed aloud. Brenna let out a sigh of pure frustration and then decided to slowly eat the cooked fish right in front of the thoroughly jealous Night Fury.

"Mmm, this tastes amazing," Brenna groaned happily, taking in big bites of the fish. "And fish tastes so much better when it's cooked."

 **"You've made your point, now shut up!"** Starlight pleaded. **"You're making me hungry!"**

"You're halfway through eating an entire fishing basket full of fish! How are you still hungry?" Brenna exclaimed.

 **"I don't know!"** Starlight exclaimed back. **"It smells soooo good! Please let me have some, Brenna!"**

"No."

 **"Please?"**

"Starlight, let me eat my breakfast in peace. Emphasis on _my_ breakfast." Brenna glared at the petulant Night Fury as she ate her fish. "Why can you eat bits of my breakfast and I can't eat bits of yours?"

 **"Because my breakfast is raw, cold fish and you don't have the stomach to eat it the way I like it,"** Starlight sassed. Brenna glared at her as she ate the last of the fish and drank the milk. She sighed as she got up and went to her room to get changed.

"Greedy dragon," the redheaded girl muttered, as she changed into a green dress with grey trimming with loose grey pants. She tied her hair up into a bun and got her boots. "Hey, Starlight? Wanna hang out with the others?"

 **"What sort of question is that, you idiot? Of course I wanna hang out with the others!"** Starlight agreed. **"Come on, Brenna!"** Brenna found herself being dragged out of the house by Starlight, and had just enough time to close the door behind her before she got thrown onto Starlight's back and was thrown into the air.

"WHOA! STARLIGHT, SLOW DOWN!" Brenna screamed.

 **"Why would I want to do something as silly as that? WOOHOOHOOHOO!"** Starlight whooped, pulling off tricks just to make Brenna's stomach flip. When they arrived, Brenna looked green at the gills and Starlight was panting for breath with a big grin on her face. **"Wasn't that fun?"**

"I can think of a lot of words for that, and none of those words happen to be 'fun'," Brenna groaned, as she slowly walked into the arena. She nearly collapsed when trying to sit down, but made it to her designated spot closer to the dragons than the humans, specifically Starlight. Starlight chose her seat to be close to Toothless. It turned out that today was not a training exercise; today was a rare self-defence day taught not by Hiccup, but by Gobber.

"All right, kids, today you will learning about hand-to-hand combat in battle," Gobber droned. "In a fair fight, either both of you get a weapon or neither of you do. But that's a fair fight, and not everything in life is fair. So, you have to learn to fight with your bare hands. I'll have to pair you up at random and whoever's left out will fight me. Understood?"

"Understood," the teenagers mumbled, as they started sorting themselves into pairs. The twins chose to fight each other, Snotlout decided to fight (read: pick on) Fishlegs. In a surprising move, Hiccup fought Gobber, and Brenna was to fight Astrid. Astrid didn't like the look of the tall redhead who seemed to be trying to take her beloved Hiccup away from her. Now Astrid could punch her and let her know who was in charge, and Brenna couldn't complain about it, since it was a training exercise and everyone was doing this. It was perfect.

As everyone struggled and fought, Astrid took some proper swings at Brenna, who blocked them one by one. Kicks weren't working either, as those were all expertly dodged, one after the other. Astrid gritted her teeth; she was actually kind of decent at fighting. But it was OK for the blonde Valkyrie. Just a little more effort on her end and she wouldn't have to deal with Brenna being so close to Hiccup any longer. Astrid sent harder and faster kicks and punches at Brenna, who began to fight back. Both were getting punches to the stomach and faces, but nobody could have predicted what was going to happen next.

Astrid planned to kick Brenna's leg, intending to make her knees buckle and Brenna fall to the floor. From there, she could get on top of Brenna and put herself at an advantage. And it worked . . . but a little too well.

The kick landed on Brenna's right leg, which made her collapse onto the floor, as expected. The right leg clicked and was then thrown off Brenna's body, landing around two feet away from her. Astrid didn't know what was going on. Had she kicked so hard that she had ripped Brenna's leg off below the knee? But it couldn't be; it wasn't bleeding. Then it hit her. It was a prosthetic.

Brenna Bloodsword used a prosthetic leg and she had just unintentionally exposed it to them all.

"Brenna, are you OK?" Gobber asked, genuinely worried for the girl.

"Fine. I'm fine," Brenna muttered, as she felt everyone staring at her. "I need to go. Bye." She grabbed her prosthetic leg and reattached it as quickly as possible, not looking at anyone. "Come on, Starlight." Starlight obeyed, allowing Brenna to clamber onto her back. The gang watched a black blur leave the arena, utterly speechless at the most recent turn of events. Then Ruffnut turned to Astrid.

"You're finding her," the long-haired blonde stated, as if Astrid was going to do it immediately.

"What?" Astrid stammered.

"I said, you're finding her," Ruffnut repeated. "You scared her off, you bring her back."

"Scared her off? That's crazy," Astrid stammered.

"Crazy, but true." Tuffnut's voice backed up that of his sister. "Knocking off her prosthetic leg must have freaked her out and she ran away with Starlight. What if she never comes back?"

"There's no way Astrid could have known that Brenna used a prosthetic," Fishlegs meekly pointed out. "This is an accident."

"Thank you!" Astrid yelled. She didn't mean to yell, but she was just so frustrated it showed in her voice. Fishlegs squeaked and backed away, and the twins seized it as proof.

"With a temper like yours, no wonder she ran!" Ruffnut scoffed. Astrid snarled and stomped over to Stormfly, getting onto her back.

"That's it! I'm going to find her and sort all of this out just so you all shut up!" Astrid snapped, taking off for Brenna's house. Stormfly allowed Astrid onto her back, and they flew off in the search for Brenna. Luckily for her, she knew the way after landing in front of the house she lived in two days ago. Before she knocked on the door, her emotions kicked in. She felt unbelievably guilty about it all, and her humiliated, terrified face was burned into her mind. Summoning up all her courage, she knocked on the door. Starlight answered, growling when she saw Astrid standing there.

*Norse **"What are you doing here?"** Starlight asked. **"If you're going to make her hide away again, then you can forget it."**

"What? No, I just need to talk to her. Where is she?" Astrid asked.

*Norse **"Gardening,"** Starlight replied. Astrid was taken aback.

"Gardening?" Astrid spluttered. "Are you serious?"

*Norse **"Yes, she does that. Trying to embarrass her even more?"** Starlight snarled. As far as she was concerned, what had happened in the arena was proof that her suspicions were right about Astrid. **"What do you want me to tell her?"** Astrid was close to tears at this point.

"Just tell her I'm sorry, OK?" Astrid blurted out, as she ran to Stormfly and flew home. As soon as she got inside and was in the safety of her room, she burst into sobs, embarrassingly loud sobs that she was so glad nobody but Stormfly could hear. She was already feeling so guilty about treating Brenna badly, but Starlight's blatant distrust just made it so much worse. Was she really that much of a horrible person? She just wanted to make sure Hiccup was hers and no new girl would take him from her, but she had, in Ruffnut's words, "scared her off". Astrid continued to sob into her pillow, covering herself up in a blanket so nobody saw her cry, even though she was home alone. _I have to find Brenna and apologize to her, face to face,_ she thought, over and over.

* * *

Brenna was in the back yard, gardening as Starlight had said. She was planting the seeds of the plants she'd grown on the deserted island in a frantic, desperate attempt to forget about what had just happened in the arena with Astrid.

It wasn't working.

Brenna could still remember everyone's shocked faces, looking at each other with confusion. But she had a feeling about what they were doing now: laughing at the look on her face, making jokes about her, eventually ignoring her in the street and encouraging other people to do the same. It wouldn't be long until she was basically ran out of Berk by the other villagers, and she and Starlight would have to leave under the cover of darkness, so nobody saw them and had the chance to take any parting shots at them. It was such a shame, too; she was beginning to like it here and now she'd have to leave. She was interrupted by Starlight, who had taken the time to sneak into the garden and check on her. (Or rather, annoy her.)

 **"Hey, Brenna!"** Starlight smiled, coming over to lick her face. Brenna giggled, while groaning at the feel of drool seeping into her clothes.

*Dragonese "Starlight, gross!" Brenna groaned. "And watch where you step; I don't want you trampling the seedlings."

 **"Fine,"** Starlight huffed, flying off so she could sit on the roof. **"I suppose you won't want to know who asked for you."** Brenna dropped her trowel in shock.

*Dragonese "Who was it? Tell me, tell me!" Brenna insisted.

 **"Astrid came. You know, the blonde one who knocked your leg off in front of everyone?"** Starlight asked.

*Dragonese "Did she have a message?" Brenna asked, worried. She hadn't known the girl long, but she knew she had a fiery temper and wasn't one to anger.

 **"She told me to tell you that she was sorry,"** Starlight replied. **"Personally, I don't believe that this was her idea. I'm not even sure if she meant it. If she tries to do anything like that again, you tell me, OK?"** Brenna nodded, feeling numb with shock. Then Starlight left, leaving Brenna with a melting pot of emotions.

 _Why is Astrid coming to my house and saying that she's sorry? I thought she didn't like me,_ Brenna thought. _What if Starlight's right and she doesn't mean it at all? Gods, this is confusing. Do I find her and ask? Would Astrid and her friends be OK with me being there?_ She was shocked out of her thought once again by a knock at the door. "I'll get it," Brenna called to Starlight, as she got up and walked to the door. She was shocked to see Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut at her door, all looking very worried.

"Brenna, it's you! Thank Thor! You weren't there the last time I showed up!" Astrid babbled, her eyes red and puffy. "I just really need to talk to you about the fight! I'm so, so sorry about kicking your leg so hard it fell off and embarrassing you and-"

"What's going on?" Brenna asked. "Astrid, are you crying?" Astrid shook her head, refusing to look Brenna in the eye.

"We just want to talk to you," Hiccup explained. "Clear up the whole arena incident so we can move on from it."

"And we want to know about the leg," Snotlout butted in. Astrid, through her tears, somehow managed to find it in herself to punch Snotlout for his thoughtless comment. "OW!" The twins glared at him.

"Don't be so forward about it!" Ruffnut hissed. "Hasn't she been through enough today?"

"But I want to know!" Snotlout whined.

"At least come to the Great Hall and talk with us," Fishlegs quietly pleaded. "There's some things you might want to know." With that, Brenna reluctantly agreed.

"Let me just freshen up before I go anywhere," Brenna insisted.

"Why would you need to freshen up?" Astrid asked.

"My fingernails have dirt under them from planting a bunch of seeds I've been saving and half of my face has Night Fury drool on it. I need to wash up," Brenna explained. Astrid blushed and looked down at the floor.

"Sorry," the Valkyrie muttered. Brenna left to splash water onto her face (to remove the Night Fury drool) and wash her hands (to remove the dirt under her nails). Then she changed back into the green dress she was wearing earlier and followed the gang to the Great Hall. They got themselves a table, sat down . . . and then the questions started.

"Why did you hide having a prosthetic?" Fishlegs asked.

"I was used to doing it all the time," Brenna explained. "The people round there weren't too accepting of it, so I learned to hide it. And it went well, until today, that is."

"Seriously? People got worked up over something like that?" Hiccup asked, incredulous. "Nobody cares round here. In fact, for some, it's a badge of honour."

"How did you lose it?" Ruffnut asked. Brenna flinched.

"Oh, and I was being too forward?" Snotlout snapped. "Hypocritical much?"

"Leave my sister alone!" Tuffnut snapped. A brawl was about to break out, if it wasn't for Ruffnut, of all people, holding both boys back.

"Look, this fight is completely unnecessary!" Ruffnut snapped. "This should be sorted out peacefully, you hear me?"

"She's actually being reasonable and responsible," Hiccup observed.

"Besides, if you're fighting, then how will we know how Brenna lost her leg?" Ruffnut pointed out.

"I take that back," Hiccup muttered.

"If you're that interested, I might as well tell you," Brenna sighed. "It happened when I was a child, seven years old. I was travelling with my father to see relatives that lived far away when we were ambushed by pirates. They wanted money, goods, anything of value. My father couldn't give them anything, for all we had were spare clothes and a little food for the journey. The pirates didn't believe him, and thought that my father was hiding goods from them. In a last-ditch effort to get everything we had of value, they separated me from my father and told him that if he wanted to get his daughter back unharmed, then he had to give them the goods they wanted. My father couldn't give them anything, and he thought that they were bluffing and wouldn't hurt a child. They weren't bluffing, as everyone who hears this now knows." Everyone was deeply sympathetic for Brenna.

"That is an extremely young age to lose a limb," Hiccup said softly. "People freaked out about my age when I lost my leg, and I was fifteen. Still young, but just over twice the age you were when you lost yours."

"How did the rest of your family react to it?" Astrid asked. "What about the other people in the village?"

"My family's reaction to it was . . . varied," Brenna admitted. "Some of them wanted to baby me and insist on doing everything for me, which was relaxing to a point. Others tried to use it as an excuse to toughen me up and teach me all about the worst things the world had to offer to a girl. The other villagers became a lot more hostile once they realized my leg wouldn't grow back. In my old village, anyone missing a limb was of a lower class and just about everyone I came into contact with treated me like I wasn't important and they could torment me all they wanted. Something I was mocked about a lot was people noticing my prosthetic and scratching it or kicking it every time they saw it. So I hid it with loose trousers and long dresses and a boot on the end of it so it looked real."

"Well, Berk isn't like that, and nobody cares if they can see your prosthetic leg," Hiccup asked. "About half of the people in the village have prosthetic arms or legs. Gobber has both of the above."

"This is such a relief," Brenna sighed. "I really hated hiding a prosthetic leg just because of what people said about having to see it and use it. That's one thing I won't have to worry about again, I guess. I'll have to adjust my prosthetic when I get home. It might be a little short or too fragile without a boot on the end."

"I'm sure Gobber could help you with that," Astrid suggested, trying to be helpful. "He made Hiccup's prosthetic leg and he'll know just how to adjust yours."

"Thank you for suggesting it, but I'd like to do that myself," Brenna politely refused. "I've always felt uncomfortable with people going out of their way to help me. Besides, I can do it myself just fine."

"OK," Astrid muttered. "I'm really sorry about what happened earlier today."

"I know, Astrid," Brenna replied, as she went home, Starlight in tow. Her face didn't show it, but she was elated. No more hiding! No more shame! She told everything to Starlight on the way home. The Night Fury was still a little sceptical of the blonde.

 **"You can throw a party in your room if you want, but I don't trust that girl,"** Starlight huffed. **"If she was mean to you before, she's willing to do so again."**

"Oh, can't you have a little faith in the people around me?" Brenna asked.

 **"No,"** Starlight replied. **"I've tried that before, and you know how that ended."**

"There's something different about these people, though," Brenna persuaded.

 **"I've heard that before,"** Starlight replied.

"This could work out well," Brenna mused.

 **"I've also heard that before,"** Starlight replied. **"Just wake me up when you need me to light candles so you can read all night long, like you normally do."**

"Oh, shut up!" Brenna yelped, as Starlight laughed at her. "Nothing changes with you, does it?"

 **"Of course not,"** Starlight grinned, licking her over and over and covering her in drool.

"Starlight, gross! You know that doesn't wash out!" Brenna groaned, as she walked home. Starlight grinned at her rider's disgusted face, and that grin didn't leave her face until she went to sleep that night.


	6. Meeting the plant

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

Brenna was in a surprisingly good mood when she woke up. The Terrible Terrors were currently chirping on someone else's roof, the sun was shining, she felt really refreshed. Her day never started off this well. Something was supposed to be going wrong right about now. But what?

 **"Oh, Brenna!"** Starlight sang, waltzing into Brenna's room with a big, smug grin. **"Lookie lookie what I've got! It's really cool! Look!"** 'It' happened to be Brenna's prosthetic leg. Horrified, Brenna tore off the blanket to properly inspect her body, to find that her leg was gone. Starlight definitely wasn't using one of her spare legs to mess with her. Her eyes weren't playing tricks on her after all.

Why, that sneaky, trick-turning Night Fury.

"Starlight, you give that back! It's mine!" Brenna protested. "I need that and you know it!"

 **"I know, but this is so fun!"** Starlight gloated. **"Come on, Brenna! Come get it! You know you - AAARGH!"** Without warning, Starlight had the leg tugged out of her grasp by a magical force. She lost her balance and fell onto her face.

Yes. A magical force. Brenna Bloodsword's three big secrets that she was worried about exposing to her new friends was that she had a Night Fury, she used a prosthetic leg and that she was a witch. Currently, the people in Berk were OK with the first two things, but the third secret was the biggest of all. She knew of places where witches were killed on discovery and barely escaped from a few places when she went there with Starlight travelling. Was Berk one of them?

"Finally, you decided to hand it over!" Brenna smiled. "Thank you, Starlight! I knew you'd see sense eventually!"

 **"You're welcome, you short-tempered sorceress,"** Starlight growled, as she got up. **"No need to do anything remotely polite, like thanking me or anything."**

"You can be sure that I won't," Brenna grinned, as she attached her prosthetic leg to the stump and went about her day, starting with her breakfast. She made herself some porridge with dried berries on top, with some milk on the side to wash it down. As she ate, Starlight walked into the dining room and started nudging Brenna. "Yes?"

 **"Brenna, I'm hungry!"** Starlight whined. **"Do you have anything for me to eat? Like maybe a basket of nice, juicy cod? Please?"**

"Oh, I left it outside for you," Brenna told Starlight off-handedly. "It's next to the massive plant with teeth."

 **"Outside? Brenna, are you crazy?"** Starlight snapped. **"I bet a bunch of Terrible Terrors have eaten it already!"** She raced outside to get to as much of her breakfast as she could, only to find a bunch of petrified Terrible Terrors perched on the roof. **"What are you looking at?"**

 **"S-s-scary plant,"** one of them whimpered. **"It's got huge teeth and it tried to eat me! I just wanted some fish!"**

 **"Yeah, it does that a lot when it's guarding stuff,"** Starlight lied. **"Brenna made it guard my food, you know. It's defending its prize. Now get away from here before I set it on you."**

 **"G-g-got it,"** another Terrible Terror replied, as they flew off. The female Night Fury watched them leave.

 **"Terrible Terrors: annoying, but hilariously gullible,"** Starlight muttered, as she took her breakfast back into the house. **"I didn't think this would work, but it did. This is one of Brenna's ideas that I wouldn't disagree with, which is pretty rare."**

"Oh, hey, Starlight," Brenna smiled. "Wanted to eat inside, huh?" Starlight glared as she ate the cod. Brenna, after she was finished, went into the garden to check on the progress on the toothed plant. It wasn't the same size as the plant they'd got the seed from, but it was growing fast. Unfortunately, it seemed to be wilting. Its green leaves were becoming yellow and crinkly and all the fertiliser she was using wasn't helping. "What could it possibly be? It's in the prime position for receiving sunlight and it gets plenty of water. What could it be?" Her musing was interrupted by a crash from inside the house. She went back inside to find Starlight on the top of the stairs, whimpering.

 **"Eel,"** she whimpered from her new favourite place in the house, pointing a claw at her basket of fish. There, next to the overturned basket, was a long, dead eel. **"Get rid of it, Brenna . . . please!"**

"All right," Brenna said, taking the eel (levitating it with magic so she didn't have to touch the slimy, dead eel) and going outside. As she passed the toothed plant, it snapped at the eel, eating it, almost taking Brenna's fingers with it. The witch let out a high-pitched squeak of surprise and jumped back away from the carnivorous plant. Her mind was spinning. _This shouldn't be happening. Am I dreaming? Someone, something, tell me that I didn't see a plant eat an eel out of my hand! Maybe I'm going crazy._ Brenna elected to not tell Starlight about it as she looked at the plant. She looked at the plant, and couldn't help but notice that it didn't have such yellow leaves any more. They now had a tint of green to them, and they weren't wilting quite as much. Odd. She was about to check on them more, but then she heard a knock at the door. "Wait a minute, I'll be with you soon," Brenna called, as she freshened herself up. When she opened the door, she found Fishlegs Ingerman, of all people. He had a blank notebook and some charcoal. What could he want?

"Hello, Brenna. Do you mind if I talk to you for a little while?" Fishlegs asked. Brenna was confused.

"What about?" Brenna asked.

"Well, I'd like to see if you have any more plants like the ones I saw on the island," Fishlegs asked. "I've never seen anything like them and I know there's no way you could possibly have taken them with you when you came to Berk. Do you . . . maybe . . . have any left?" He was really nervous about it.

"Oh, of course! I brought seeds with me and I'm planting them right now in my garden! If you want to look, come on in!" Brenna invited. "Just go straight forward and you'll find the garden; I'll go get some things." Fishlegs let out a squeal and rushed into the garden, hurriedly muttering his thanks. Brenna went upstairs and starting to rifle through her things. She really wanted to help Fishlegs and figured she had just the thing for it: her own notes. She'd taken plenty of them over the years of travelling, and Brenna was sure Fishlegs would love them. She collected her notes up, took a deep breath, and went to the garden.

Fishlegs was examining them very closely, with a look of complete wonder on his face. They were confusing and amazing to him and everything, absolutely everything was new, and not many things were new to Fishlegs in the world of botany. He thought that he'd seen it all . . . until now. He knew better than to go near the snapping plant with teeth, though, after his last experience. But the beefy boy was sharp-eyed enough to notice that the plant that had tried to bite him looked bigger before. "Uh, Brenna? Did this plant look bigger before? I remember looking up at it the last time."

"Oh, that's not the same plant. That's a plant I grew from a seed I got from the first plant over on the island," Brenna explained. "Anyway, I have something for you." Fishlegs turned around to see Brenna with a big, well-thumbed notebook. Several of the pages were dog-eared and one was ripped a little, but Fishlegs didn't mind, so long as the writing wasn't blurred. He'd seen books in much worse condition, after all.

"What's this?" Fishlegs asked.

"These are my old notes," Brenna replied. "All my notes on all the plants that I have here that I've collected. There are sketches of them in the book, too. Figured it would save you the trouble." Fishlegs gasped.

"Brenna, it's too much," Fishlegs politely refused. "This is years of work."

"I know, but if botanists never shared their knowledge, we'd never get any further," Brenna explained. "So, from one botanist to another, here you go."

"This isn't seriously mine to keep, is it?" Fishlegs stammered.

"Oh, why not? I've basically memorized it anyway," Brenna smiled. "So, do you want it?"

"Of course! Thank you so much!" Fishlegs babbled. As he looked around the garden, he noticed the only plant that wasn't in perfect condition was the snapping plant with teeth, yellowed and wilting. "What's wrong with the snapping plant?"

"I don't know, but I have a theory. It's crazy, but I think this is it," Brenna explained. "I think that this plant eats eels." Fishlegs did a double-take.

"An eel-eating plant? I've never heard of such a thing before," Fishlegs stammered. "But I guess it's worth a shot." Brenna left to get an eel (which wasn't hard to find, since there was one in the middle of the market and dragons were terrified of it) and came back with it squirming in her hands. Starlight, who had just been recovering from the earlier eel encounter, flew away from the house screaming. Tentatively, the ginger-haired girl waved it in front of the plant, seeing if it would take the bait.

It did.

"Oh my gods!" Fishlegs screamed, as he saw the plant eat the eel in one gulp, sucking it down like a modern day strand of spaghetti. "It ate the eel!" As Fishlegs freaked out, Brenna watched the plant. It seemed to be losing the unhealthy look and becoming greener, growing larger and even beginning to sprout another, much smaller leaf.

"And look! It's becoming even more green! It looks almost like a healthy plant now!" Brenna pointed out.

"Oh man, this is amazing! THERE IS AN EEL EATING PLANT WITH TEETH HERE ON BERK!" Fishlegs cheered loudly. He was interrupted by a knock at the door. Brenna answered it, finding a terrified Viking woman at the door. She had accidentally overheard them.

"Did you just say that you had a plant with teeth in the village?" she stammered. Brenna was about to say no when Fishlegs interrupted her. He was still hyper about finding a carnivorous plant that now lived on Berk.

"Yes! There is a plant in her garden that has massive teeth and I saw it eat an eel! Do you want to go in and see it?" Fishlegs asked. The woman screamed with terror and ran away. "Huh? What's going on with that lady?" Brenna was watching the whole thing with her mouth open.

"This isn't going to end well," Brenna groaned.

"I'm sure it will," Fishlegs replied optimistically.

"No, it won't," Brenna replied.

* * *

Brenna was later proven to be absolutely right. When she had lunch with the gang later in the Great Hall, Mildew approached them, angry as usual. Usually the only company he had was his loyal pet sheep Fungus, but now he had a group of followers. Granted, there was only ten of them, but it was a following nonetheless. "You there, ginger one-legged girl," he snarled. "I need to talk to you."

"About what?" Brenna asked.

"About the giant man-eating plant that you keep in your garden," Mildew snapped, his terrified followers agreeing with him. Brenna was shocked.

"Giant man-eating plant? That's crazy," Brenna disputed, but Mildew wasn't having it.

"Don't lie to me, it's all over the village," Mildew sneered. "You smuggled a man-eating plant into Berk!"

"But it's not man-eating!" Fishlegs chimed in.

"Then prove it," Mildew snapped. "Bring the plant to the Great Hall at the first given opportunity, or I'll have you thrown out of the village, do you hear me?" Brenna nodded, terrified that Mildew would actually carry out his threat. "Good." With that, he and his followers walked away. The twins giggled with anticipation.

"We get our first look at the snapping plant with teeth! This is awesome!" Ruffnut squealed.

"I know, right?" Tuffnut grinned. "I hope it eats Fungus!"

"I don't seriously have to bring the plant to the Great Hall, do I?" Brenna asked. "I mean, it's a plant with teeth, and the Great Hall is filled with people. Mildew doesn't actually want me to bring a plant with teeth into a crowded place, does he? I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt."

"You know, crazy as it sounds, maybe you should just do what he says," Hiccup decided. Everyone stared at him as if he was going crazy. Toothless was concerned about the resident nerdy brunette.

 **"Hiccup, are you OK?"** Toothless asked. **"You're really beginning to worry me."**

"What are you thinking?" Astrid yelled. "You think Brenna bringing a dangerous plant into a Great Hall is a good idea? You heard what she said about it! I barely know her and I agree with what she said!"

"Thank you, Astrid . . . I guess," Brenna muttered. "Anyway, I have a massive plant to dig up. The sooner that Mildew guy shuts up, the better."

*Norse **"No. No, no, no, no, no. You are not going to dig up a plant with a full set of teeth and unleash it on an entire village full of innocent people!"** Starlight refused. **"This is crazy! You're not seriously going to do this on the say-so of a crazy guy! This is a trick! Why doesn't anyone see that this is a trick?! If you do it, he'll try to get us kicked out anyway!"**

"Starlight, the way I see it, I'm done for either way. If I do it, I'm damned and if I don't, I'm still damned. If my last day on Berk is spent scaring an irritable, bitter old man who never liked me anyway, then I'm fine with that," Brenna replied, as she walked home. The twins cheered. Starlight groaned.

 **"Man, my human is dumb,"** the female Night Fury groaned. **"I hope that plant doesn't eat the old man. Then again, maybe not. I don't like this guy."**

 **"Oh, you don't? Join the club!"** Toothless replied. **"Mildew is known as one thing: the grouchy dragon-hating old guy."**

 **"Really?"** Starlight asked.

 **"Yeah, pretty much everyone hates him because all he does is complain,"** Toothless divulged. **"He says there are too many dragons on Berk and they cause too much damage and they're too wild. And he totally picks favourites, or rather, least favourites. Everyone knows who his least favourite is."**

 **"Who's his least favourite?"** Starlight asked.

 **"Me,"** Toothless grinned, snickering at the thought of Mildew's angry face. **"That guy hates my guts."**

 **"Why?"** Starlight asked.

 **"Apparently, Night Furies like you, me and literally nobody else in the whole world have a reputation, at least, around here, for being the unholy offspring of lightning and death,"** Toothless explained to a shocked Starlight. **"He thinks that Night Furies are evil and bring bad luck and will destroy humans and other things that I've either forgotten or don't want to repeat in front of you."**

 **"Oh my gods! He's going to hate me and Brenna!"** Starlight gasped. **"Do you think he'll try to actually kick us out?"**

 **"He hasn't got the power to do that,"** Toothless told her. **"All he can really do is yell at people and complain until they do what he wants them to do. He has no real influence to use against anyone."**

 **"He doesn't?"** Starlight asked. **"Well, that's a relief. This means Brenna and I won't be forced to leave."** Then she started walking away. Toothless was surprised at the sudden end to the conversation.

 **"Wait, where are you going?"** Toothless asked.

 **"I have to tell Brenna!"** Starlight told him. **"I've gotta go! Bye, Toothless!"**

 **"Bye, Starlight,"** Toothless greeted, as Starlight took off and flew away. He knew that Starlight wasn't leaving because of him, but he still didn't want her to leave. That was when it truly hit him that he was in love with the island's only female Night Fury. **"I wish she could have stayed longer. I could have talked to her for ages."**

Starlight, meanwhile, was flying home immediately to give Brenna the good news that Mildew had no real influence in the village. **"Brenna, Brenna! You'll never guess what I just heard!"** Starlight blurted out.

"You've decided to take a permanent vow of silence starting tomorrow?" Brenna asked.

 **"No, no, it's - Brenna, I'm not taking a vow of silence!"** Starlight snapped. Brenna smirked.

"Then what is it?" Brenna asked.

 **"Mildew can't kick you out of the village! All he ever does is yell at people like he did to you! He won't do anything!"** Starlight eagerly divulged.

"Well, that's a relief," Brenna sighed. "So I won't have to show this plant to anyone unless someone with authority asks." There was suddenly a knock at the door. Brenna opened it to find Stoick the Vast there.

"Brenna, good day," Stoick the Vast greeted. "I would like to talk to you about some rumours about a dangerous plant. People say that there is a giant, man-eating plant you have in your garden. Is that true?"

"No, sir. I was about to bring it to the Great Hall to prove it," Brenna replied.

"Good. The sooner this is cleared up, the better. I'll see you there," Stoick replied. Then he left. Brenna looked at Starlight. Starlight looked at Brenna.

"Well, I guess I have a good reason to bring this plant to the Great Hall now," Brenna sighed.

 **"Why does this have to happen?"** Starlight groaned. **"And just when I wanted to make a point, too!"**

"Shut up and help me move this plant," Brenna sighed. Together, the dragon and human helped load the plant (now inside a plant pot and not the ground) into a wheelbarrow and wheel it in front of the Great Hall. From there, Brenna had to carry it to the Great Hall. There had once been a large mass of people, but once they saw Brenna, they parted like Moses parting the Red Sea to make a path for her to walk down. The redhead was met by Stoick and Mildew. Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins and the aforementioned people's dragons were there to witness the entire story. The twins were even eating popcorn.

"So, girl, where's the plant?" Mildew asked. "Are you holding it now?"

"No, Mildew, this is clearly a full-grown bear," Brenna sassed. There was scattered giggles from the assembled villagers. "Yes, I'm holding it."

"Don't you talk back to me," Mildew snarled. Brenna remained firm. "Now show me the man-eating plant." Brenna carefully laid the plant down on the floor. Almost immediately, the plant began to move its leafy green head around, as if it was trying to see all the people in this strange new room. Grown Vikings screamed and backed off. Mildew used this as proof. "See? I told you! That plant is liable to kill someone!"

"It doesn't eat people!" Fishlegs yelled. "It eats eels! I saw it eat an eel myself!" Heads turned to look at the beefy boy, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The Vikings stopped screaming to process this bizarre new bit of information. Mildew didn't believe him.

"You're lying, boy. I can see it all over your face," Mildew sneered. "An eel-eating plant is crazy!"

"So is a man-eating plant!" Brenna chimed in. Mildew glared at her.

"Not another word out of you," he snapped. "I've never heard such rubbish about a plant ever in my whole life. You know what I think, Brenna? I think you and Fishlegs are lying about this plant eating eels, and I can prove it, you hear me?" With that, the old man stormed out, Fungus in tow. People started awkwardly looking around at each other, wondering what the old man was up to now.

Mildew's motives were revealed when he came back with a live eel, still wiggling in his hand. Starlight and the other dragons present backed away with fear at the nasty eel. Mildew strode over to the plant and waved it in its leafy green face, moving the eel around to see if it would follow it. Nothing happened. Mildew started to chuckle, which eventually turned into flat-out laughter. A few other Vikings started to laugh too.

"So you were wrong the whole time!" Spitelout Jorgenson howled. "You know what? Let me properly prove it now. Mildew, give me that eel." Spitelout went over to Mildew, to take the eel, but then the plant reached out its neck/stem and grabbed it right out of Mildew's hand. The old man screamed and ran back a few feet. The fear that had just gone away about the plant was back with a vengeance.

"You should have listened to Fishlegs, Mildew," Brenna remarked. "After all, he did tell you that it ate eels."

"But I thought he was wrong!" Mildew stammered. "I thought maybe he was lying!"

"But he wasn't and he wasn't," Brenna replied calmly. Spitelout started to regain his brash confidence. After all, a plant with teeth never bit _him_ ; what did he have to worry about?

"Don't worry too much about it, lass, I doubt it would have bitten anyone," Spitelout scoffed smugly.

"Then where do you think I got this from?" Brenna asked, rolling up her sleeve to show a bite mark. People screamed and ran away, halving the size of the crowd in seconds. Some of the women fainted. Some of the men did, too. Spitelout's newly-acquired patience evaporated, as did the colour from his face. "Luckily for me, the bite isn't poisonous and it wasn't as big as it is now. At its current size, it could easily rip an adult's arm off from the shoulder. Mildew's lucky he got away from it in time." As she talked, the plant with teeth slowly trailed towards Brenna, who had her back to it. Spitelout tried to warn her, but couldn't get the words out. He was terrified. "What is it? Are you OK?" Then, just before the plant tried to bite her a second time, Brenna grabbed it by the throat (or, at least, where the throat would be if it actually had a throat and wasn't a plant). It tried to get out of her grip, but she was too strong. "I can handle this plant. If it ever tries to take a bite out of me, I'll be eating salads for lunch for a month." The plant, as if registering the threat, stopped thrashing. Once Brenna let go, it retreated back to its plant pot, and almost seemed to cower before her as she took it home. Everyone stared in shock.

"That was beautiful," Ruffnut whispered.

"Like poetry in motion," Tuffnut whispered back, wiping a tear out of the corner of his eyes.

"Something's telling me that Brenna will be able to handle that plant just fine on her own," Hiccup remarked. Astrid nodded, a little shaken. If this girl could handle a killer plant, then she could definitely handle her.

"Yeah, I'm sure Brenna will be fine," Astrid agreed nervously, wiping off a thin layer of sweat off her forehead.

 **"Now that's a cool plant,"** Barf and Belch chorused.

 **"Forget the dumb plant, think about the human! Starlight, your rider is so cool!"** Hookfang complimented.

 **"How did she see the plant coming?"** Toothless asked.

 **"Does your human do this a lot?"** Meatlug asked.

 **"She's done this a few time before,"** Starlight answered. **"You get used to it after a while."**

 **"Really?"** Toothless asked.

 **"No,"** Starlight whispered. **"Not at all. I'm still freaked out by it."** As she stared at Toothless, she suddenly got very nervous and couldn't think of anything else to say to him. **"I'd better go. Bye."**

 **"Nice talking to you,"** Toothless replied. Hookfang didn't notice the Night Fury's disappointment and went over to talk to him.

 **"Things have been real crazy recently,"** Hookfang thought aloud. **"Mostly to do with Brenna. What other things could she possibly be hiding?"**

 **"Let's just wait and see,"** Toothless said.

* * *

Later that night, Toothless walked by Brenna's house for any sign of Starlight, when he heard an enchanting song being played. It made him stop to appreciate it more. Toothless lost track of how long he spent listening to the beautiful music until Hiccup found him.

"So that's where you've been!" Hiccup laughed. "Come on, bud. You can dream about Starlight at home." Hiccup led Toothless home like he was a toddler. The strangest thing about it was that Toothless didn't protest once. He had Starlight in his head.


	7. Language usage

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

Starlight woke up uncharacteristically late the next day to the sound of Brenna cleaning up the house. Confused at the change in schedule and annoyed that she couldn't tease Brenna by playing keep-away with her prosthetic leg, she went downstairs to look for her. Starlight found Brenna, dressed in a dark blue knee-length dress with light grey pants, reading a book about traditional weapons around the world. This was even more confusing.

 **"Brenna, what's going on?"** Starlight asked. **"If you're here, what's that noise?"**

"Oh, I just got the chores to do themselves," Brenna explained, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Starlight found broomsticks sweeping up dust, bits of cloth sharpening and polishing Brenna's weapons, dishes being cleaned, and all of it being done by magic. What could only be described as blue ribbons of light were enveloped around the broomstick and the bits of cloth cleaning the swords and dishes and the pumice stone sharpening the weapons were all being controlled by these blue ribbons of light. This was Brenna's magic at work. Starlight rolled her eyes and went back to the living room, where Brenna was still reading and didn't acknowledge her at all.

 **"I can't believe you did all that just so you didn't have to do any actual work,"** Starlight huffed.

"But I was doing work! It was my magic doing it, and I control that, so technically I am still doing the chores," Brenna rationalized. Starlight groaned.

 **"I have never heard anything quite so stupid in all my life, you know that?"** Starlight told Brenna. **"Neither have I ever seen someone more determined to not get off their lazy, ever-growing butt-"**

"Did you just call me fat?" Brenna blurted out.

 **"Fat? You? No, of course not,"** Starlight denied. Brenna relaxed until she heard the next thing that came out of Starlight's mouth. **"Not yet, anyway. You are getting there, though."**

"Starlight!" Brenna yelped, blushing. She was hurt, and Starlight felt guilty. Brenna had felt insecure about her body ever since she lost her leg. Years of bullying from her peers would do that to a person. Starlight was treading on territory that nobody belonged on. And it suddenly hit her like a slap to the face.

 **"Holy Thor, are you OK? Brenna, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry!"** Starlight babbled, full of remorse after such a short time. _**I should have never have said such things to Brenna! I of all people know how much this hurts her. Why, oh why did I do it?**_

"It's OK," Brenna smiled, even though she was still a little hurt. But Starlight wasn't to know that. It would crush her to know how much it actually insulted her. But she smiled through it and pretended to be OK. "I'm sure you've said worse things before. Remember that time when we were around ten and a kid was being mean to me and you called her a-"

 **"OK, I get it!"** Starlight interrupted. **"Now come on! Hiccup's probably giving a lecture right now and we're missing it!"** Brenna jumped on Starlight's back so she could fly to the arena and catch the end of the beginning of the lecture. But when they got there, what they actually caught was chaos.

"For the last time, Hiccup, we get it! You speak a different language and we have no clue what you're saying! Now shut up!" Snotlout yelled. Brenna was confused, until Hiccup opened his mouth.

*Latin "What's wrong, Snotlout? Finding it a little hard to understand?" Hiccup taunted. Hiccup wasn't normally this mean, but he could afford to when nobody could understand him. Besides, how could you reprimand someone when you had no idea what they said or did to deserve it?

"What's going on?" Brenna asked, confused. "Why are you all so angry?"

"It's all Hiccup's fault!" Tuffnut angrily explained. "Whenever it gets too much for him and he finds us too annoying to cope with, he annoys us in a different language for annoying him."

"It's not fair! We can't say anything back because we don't know what he's saying!" Ruffnut complained.

"This is getting old, Hiccup," Astrid groaned. _I love this boy, but this is annoying as hell,_ the blonde thought.

 **"What's Hiccup saying that's making everyone so mad?"** Starlight asked Hookfang Toothless, Stormfly, Meatlug and Barf and Belch.

 **"It's the fact that nobody knows that's making them so mad,"** Toothless explained. **"Hiccup knows a lot of languages and speaks different ones to mess with people. And it's working well. In fact, it's working so well it's actually pretty embarrassing to watch this."**

 **"Oh, did I just hear Toothless disagree with Hiccup's actions?"** Hookfang teased. **"If I could read, then I would probably see this in a history book dedicated to things that you rarely see on Berk!"**

 **"Wait, you don't think this is a good idea?"** Stormfly stuttered. **"Then why don't you tell him?"**

 **"I have told him! He just never listens!"** Toothless groaned. **"If he'd listened, he wouldn't be doing this now!"**

 **"He has a point,"** Meatlug muttered.

*Latin "Come on, Toothless. Dragon training lessons have been cancelled," Hiccup told his friend, preparing to get on Toothless' back . . . but Toothless stopped him. *Latin "What are you doing, bud?"

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE SAYING.

Everyone laughed, and Hiccup grew frustrated with Toothless. *Latin "Toothless, work with me! This is getting embarrassing!" Hiccup whined. *Latin "Come on, move!"

JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE MAD DOESN'T MEAN I UNDERSTAND YOU NOW.

*Latin "Toothless, you useless, back-chatting reptile, do something!" Hiccup ordered. Brenna had had enough, and decided to end it.

*Latin "But Hiccup, Toothless is doing something; he's annoying you," Brenna pointed out. Everyone in the arena, dragon and human, stared at Brenna with wide eyes.

*Latin "You understood me the entire time?" Hiccup stammered. This threw a wrench in Hiccup's plans. How was he supposed to annoy people in a language that they didn't understand if someone understood it? They could just translate what he was saying and that wouldn't help him. But then he had an idea; he knew plenty of other languages, so he could just annoy people in another language instead.

*Latin "Yes, I do understand you. And you're getting annoying," Brenna pointed out. Hiccup switched lanes . . . or rather, switched languages.

*French "Hey, Brenna, do you still understand me?" Hiccup taunted. *French "I bet this is all going over your head right now, isn't it?"

*French "Don't worry, Hiccup. I understand you just fine," Brenna reassured. "Absolutely nothing that you just said went over that ginger head of mine." In a panic, Hiccup tried again.

*English "How about now?" Hiccup asked. He wasn't so cocky now. A thin bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. *English "Do you understand me now?"

*English "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I understand you?" Brenna asked. Hiccup was starting to panic now. Dragons and humans alike watched the language fight unfold. Brenna was winning, and they could tell easily.

"I didn't expect the day to go like this," Astrid admitted. "But I guess it could be worse."

"Of course it could be worse! He could still be annoying us!" Snotlout cheered. "Go, Brenna!"

"This is long-overdue revenge," Tuffnut smiled.

"Brenna, we may never be able to thank you enough," Ruffnut whispered, a teardrop in the corner of each of her eyes.

"When do you think they'll stop?" Fishlegs asked.

"Once Hiccup decides to never do this again," Astrid muttered.

 **"I wish someone had done this to Hiccup earlier,"** Toothless said to nobody in particular. The other dragons stared at him, aghast.

 **"Who are you and what have you done with Toothless?"** Hookfang asked.

 **"Hookfang, I have had to put up with multiple languages for a long time. I'm getting rather sick of it,"** Toothless confided.

 **"Even you?"** Barf and Belch chorused. **"This is getting bad if even you have eventually come to disagree."**

 **"Eventually? What do you mean eventually? I disagreed immediately!"** Toothless disputed.

 **"Yeah, sure you did,"** Stormfly snickered.

But back to Brenna and Hiccup's multilingual argument (which would later be described as the nerdiest way of asserting dominance ever by their respective dragons).

*Dutch "Do you still understand me?" Hiccup asked. *Dutch "Don't tell me you still know what I'm talking to you about."

*Dutch "Fine, I won't," Brenna replied, with the speed of a Night Fury. Hiccup only had two languages in his linguistic arsenal now. He had to make them count.

*Greek "Hey, Brenna, do you know what I'm saying?" Hiccup asked.

*Greek "Of course I do," Brenna smiled. She sounded innocent, but there was a mocking undertone to her voice that everyone could hear. The one-legged brunette had one last language to use against her. If this didn't work, the method he had for annoying everyone around him was over.

*Chinese "There is absolutely no way that you know Chinese. I have to be safe now," Hiccup breathed. Little did he know that Brenna had him cornered. It was game, set and match to her, and the best part about it was that he didn't even know it.

*Chinese "I'm sorry, what did you say, Hiccup?" Brenna taunted. Hiccup turned scarily pale. *Chinese "Would you mind repeating it for me? I didn't quite catch that."

"How are you doing this? I - you - but - how?" Hiccup babbled. "You speak all the same languages as me. All of them!"

"Oh good, you've gone back to speaking Norse," Brenna smiled. "Now you've stopped playing games, we can talk. And don't try speaking any other languages, Hiccup - two can play at that game, as you now know."

 **"Your human is smart,"** Toothless complimented to Starlight.

 **"I know,"** Starlight smiled. Stormfly rolled her eyes and tail-smacked her round the head. **"OW! You have spikes on your tail!"**

 **"For Thor's sake, he just complimented your rider!"** Stormfly scolded.

 **"In Brenna's case, it's not a compliment, it's a fact,"** Starlight bragged.

"First off, this speaking in multiple languages thing to annoy people has got to stop. It's hopelessly immature," Brenna chided. "A bunch of five-year-olds just called; they want their passive aggressive mind games back before they go troll hunting in the woods today!"

"BURN!" Snotlout and the twins hollered, whooping and cheering. But Brenna wasn't done.

"And another thing, what's with the insults? You asked me if what you were saying was going over my head, and then you called Toothless a 'useless, back-chatting reptile' in a language he doesn't speak when he wouldn't obey you," Brenna pointed out. "He was trying to be the voice of reason, too!"

 **"Thank you!"** Toothless acknowledged, relaxing now he knew he had a human on his side.

"I - you-" Hiccup stammered.

"Never mind. Let me know when you've grown up, OK?" Brenna asked, as she and Starlight left. A black blur was seen in the skies of Berk. Hiccup turned back to find his very angry friends and a smug Night Fury.

 **"Finally, my efforts are acknowledged,"** Toothless sighed. **"Suck it, Hiccup. You played language roulette and lost the draw."** Astrid was more forgiving than Toothless was.

"I'm not looking for an apology, so long as you never do it again," the blonde said. Hiccup nodded. The guilt had suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. The brunette now felt so stupid for needing someone they barely knew to show him how immature he was being. He also felt bad for ignoring his friends for so long.

"Speak for yourself, Astrid! Hiccup, I want you in front of us all this evening in the Great Hall, begging on your knees for our forgiveness!" Snotlout ordered. Hookfang tail-slapped him. "Hookfang!"

 **"Sorry about him, you guys. He's an idiot,"** Hookfang excused sheepishly.

 **"We noticed, Hookfang,"** Toothless muttered. **"It's actually pretty hard to not notice about your human."**

 **"Look, Toothless, nobody insults my human's intelligence but me,"** Hookfang snapped. **"Insult your own human."**

 **"Nobody insults your human but you . . . and everyone in the village,"** Barf pointed out. **"Jokes about your human being dumb are more common than Terrible Terrors in this village."**

 **"HEY!"** Hookfang blurted out. He was about to aim a fireball at the trash-talking Zippleback, but then the boys overheard a conversation the girls were having.

 **"The boys around here are so dumb sometimes,"** Stormfly remarked.

 **"You know, I don't usually say this to you, Stormfly, but you've got a serious point,"** Meatlug replied. The boys were shocked.

 **"WHAT?"** they blurted out. Stormfly and Meatlug rolled their eyes in unison.

 **"And oblivious,"** Stormfly muttered.

 **"Got it,"** Meatlug muttered back. **"Will someone please let me know when this is all over so we can all go home?"**

 **"You are totally reading my mind right now,"** Stormfly sighed, as they both settled down to sleep until the argument wore off. The boys huffed and spent the rest of the time in the arena in an awkward silence.

Anyway, that's enough of them, over to Brenna and Starlight.

* * *

Brenna and Starlight were sitting in the same cove where Hiccup had bonded with Toothless, thinking. "Hiccup seemed more mature than this," Brenna wondered aloud. "I didn't know that he was petty enough to do this."

 **"You never know someone unless they're really angry, really sad or really happy,"** Starlight told her, in a rare moment of sage advice. **"And don't be too hard on yourself; you never knew that he was multilingual to begin with and you did the right thing."**

"And now I think about it, there are a large amount of similarities about us, that the others might find rather funny," Brenna mused. "We both have Night Furies, other than Dragonese we speak all the same languages, both of us use prosthetic legs, we're both used to working in forges-"

 **"And you're both a major pair of nerds,"** Starlight pointed out.

"Hey!"

 **"What? It's true. You two could be entered into a nerdiness competition and turned away for being professionals!"**

"Don't push it, Starlight," Brenna huffed, glaring at Starlight. Starlight raised an eyebrow (well, eye-ridge, since she is a reptile and has no hair).

 **"I'll push it as much as I Thor-damned want to,"** Starlight sassed, grinning at the annoyed redhead. **"I've done it before, and I'll do it again."**

"Fair point," Brenna admitted. Starlight enjoyed messing with her . . . a little too much for Brenna's taste. She chalked it up to being a Night Fury thing, like sleeping upside down like a bat. Maybe Toothless was the same way with Hiccup. Maybe she was the only one with such a mouthy, mischievous Night Fury, or Toothless was just as bad and messed with Hiccup when she couldn't see or hear him. Brenna got out her notebook and started sketching the cove in front of her. Sketching was just something Brenna did to distract herself from the pitfalls of life, and it seemed to be working, until she heard a voice. A familiar, nerdy voice.

"Hey, Brenna," Hiccup muttered. "Didn't know you'd be here." Brenna looked at Hiccup with surprise.

"You come here a lot?" Brenna asked.

"Yeah, it's where I met Toothless, actually," Hiccup confided. "So it's special to us."

"How did you meet, by the way?" Brenna asked, curious. Hiccup sighed.

"Brenna, Berk wasn't always at peace with dragons. Dragons and humans were once at war, one that lasted roughly 300 years. When I first met Toothless, we were still at war and . . . the reason he has a prosthetic tailfin is because during that period, I shot him down." Hiccup looked at the floor shamefully at the memory of hurting his friend. "I snuck out of the village to spend time with him in secret, and I learned to train him. But this was against everything Vikings had ever known, so it was forbidden."

"Hence the sneaking around," Brenna realized.

"Exactly. Of course, once my father found out that I had befriended a dragon, he was furious. He used Toothless to get to the dragon's nest and brought an army with him to kill them all." Brenna listened on, open-mouthed. "The dragons in the nest were all under the control of a huge dragon we called the Red Death."

"When you say, huge, how huge?" Brenna asked.

"Easily as big as a small mountain," Hiccup told her. Brenna gasped.

"You're joking!" she blurted out. Hiccup shook his head.

"No joke. Ask anyone," Hiccup told her. "There was a huge battle, and it died, and its death meant that all the dragons that lived in the nest were free. And that was when I . . . lost my leg. It turns out that dragons have a sort of revenge thing, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, all that stuff. Well, a leg is equal to a fin for dragons, I guess."

"And after that came the dragons and humans living in harmony thing?"

"Yeah. So, how did you meet Starlight?"

"My dad and brothers found a weird-looking rock in the woods when hunting and took it home as a weird looking souvenir just before I was born. On the day that I was born, the weird rock hatched and that was when we were introduced to Starlight and me," Brenna recounted.

"Your dad found a dragon egg in the woods and raised the hatchling alongside a human child?" Hiccup spluttered. "That is so cool!" Then his face changed from a look of fascination to one of confusion. "But where was the mother? And how did you even know that Starlight was a Night Fury? How was it to raise her?"

"Hey, I was a baby at the time; I don't know all the answers," Brenna stammered, flushing a dark shade of red. "I know that my village had never had a dragon living with them before, so I guess the other villagers kept Starlight and figured 'Eh, what's the harm in letting a creature we know nothing about grow up with a human child the same age as it?' Now I think about it, they probably saw Starlight as an exotic, harmless pet and had no clue of a Night Fury's intelligence or abilities until we grew up. Heck, maybe they kept her because she was a baby at the time and was cute and she was beginning to bond with me. Maybe they saw Night Furies as being no more intelligent than dogs. I didn't understand it. Since when did dogs speak Norse?"

"Seriously? They didn't take Starlight seriously even though she learned their language?" Hiccup spluttered. "That makes no sense."

 **"Good to know that one of the nerds has their head on the right way,"** Starlight huffed. **"The village Brenna and I grew up in was all levels of crazy."**

 **"It doesn't mean Berk is a haven of logic, though,"** Toothless pointed out. **"Everyone here is on some level of crazy. Hiccup gets one all to himself called nerd crazy."**

 **"If everyone on Berk fits into a certain category of crazy, then I'm sure Brenna would fit right in!"** Starlight sarcastically remarked. Toothless fought back laughter.

*Dragonese "You know I can hear and understand you, right?" Brenna asked. The two Night Furies jumped, and it was Hiccup's turn to stifle laughter.

"Your faces! It's priceless!" he snickered. Toothless rolled his eyes at his dorky human.

 **"Not our fault she took us by surprise,"** Toothless huffed.

*Norse **"Yeah, and it's not our fault that Brenna has a habit of eavesdropping,"** Starlight retorted.

"Hey!" Brenna snapped. "It's not eavesdropping if you're right there!"

*Norse **"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,"** Starlight muttered.

"What did they say?" Hiccup asked.

"Toothless was saying that everyone living in Berk fit into a certain category of crazy, and you got a category all to yourself called nerd crazy," Brenna reported. "And if everyone fits into a certain category of crazy, then I should fit right in!"

"What?" Hiccup blurted out.

"This is a disadvantage to understanding dragons. You have to translate their insults to those who don't, and it doesn't always end well," Brenna sighed. Toothless began to feel rather guilty. Hiccup may have been a dork, but he was a nice dork.

I'M SORRY, HICCUP.

Hiccup smiled at the apologetic Night Fury. "You are forgiven, you big scaly cat," Hiccup teased.

DON'T CALL ME THAT.

"Why not? It's true," Hiccup teased. Toothless looked at Starlight as if to say "Let's mess with this guy and anyone who agrees with him forever."

"Let's face it, Night Furies have a few things in common with cats. For example, both will chase bright objects and play with yarn," Brenna pointed out. Toothless and Starlight stiffened with embarrassment for the second time, and Hiccup laughed at them for the second time.

"Now _this_ is funny!" Hiccup laughed.

*Norse **"Oh, come on! I was three!"** Starlight justified.

"More like six, actually," Brenna corrected. Starlight was pissed. Brenna was embarrassing her in front of her crush and his rider! She looked at Toothless to agree with the idea of messing with the nerds forever. Both of them went to the pond in the cove and sucked up a mouthful of water. They went right back to their riders and spat in out in their faces. Then they both licked their riders right in their faces.

"EWWW!" both of the nerds groaned. The Night Furies laughed hysterically.

 **"Your faces!"** Toothless laughed.

 **"Now _this_ is funny!"** Starlight snickered. Now it was the dragon riders who were embarrassed and didn't see the funny side.

"You know that doesn't wash out!" they chorused, before looking at each other in surprise over having spoken in unison. "Wait, what? How are you saying the same things as me?"

 **"All those in favour of the idea of using humans as free entertainment forever, say aye,"** Starlight muttered.

 **"Aye,"** Toothless muttered back.

"Oh, thanks, you two!" Brenna snapped. "We are not free entertainment, thank you very much!"

"Yeah!" Hiccup agreed.

 **"OK, you two, time to go home,"** Starlight muttered, as she and Toothless collected their riders and left the cove for their respective homes.

"Did you have to lick me?" Brenna complained the moment they were inside.

 **"Depends. Did you have to say that I played with yarn?"** Starlight griped. **"You know what? This deserves another lick to the face."** And with that, Brenna was the unlucky recipient of another slobbery Night Fury lick.

"EWWW!" Brenna groaned.

 **"Serves you right,"** Starlight chuckled. **"Good night. And as far as getting that off your face goes, good luck."** Brenna conjured up a small towel and wiped the drool off her face before going to bed herself. Both Night Fury and witch were out like a candle in the wind.


	8. Night Fury antics

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

Starlight woke up early and snuck out of the house. She needed to stretch her wings, get some fresh air, start her day right. It turned out that Toothless had the same idea, and they bumped into each other. **"OW!"** they yelped.

 **"Starlight!"** Toothless stammered. **"What are you doing?"**

 **"What are _you_ doing?"** Starlight asked.

 **"I asked you first,"** Toothless told her.

 **"I got out of the house so I could get some fresh air."**

 **"I got out of the house so Hiccup doesn't know who hid the Book of Dragons so he'd go to sleep earlier,"** Toothless admitted. Starlight was taken aback.

 **"You tricked him into going to sleep earlier?"** Starlight asked. Toothless looked and felt guilty, but then she giggled. **"Cool! I always knew that humans were gullible!"** Toothless relaxed. He was off the hook.

 **"I only did it because my human refuses to take care of himself. No sleeping pattern, doesn't eat enough and works far too much for his own good. If he couldn't find the Book of Dragons, he'd have to stop,"** the male Night Fury rationalized.

 **"My human's the same way. She works for so long and I have to literally drag her out,"** Starlight complained. **"Apparently, the 'it's for the sake of your health' reason doesn't count."**

 **"I shall never understand them, but I won't have to since stopping them is so easy,"** Toothless bragged. **"If I want Hiccup out of the forge, I can easily drag him out. He can't compete physically, but he doesn't remember until it's too late."** The conversation would have continued past that point, but that was when they heard a yell.

"Hey, who put the Book of Dragons on the top shelf? Dad, did you - TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup screamed. The two Night Furies looked at each other and giggled.

 **"You do know, of course, that now I'll have to best you in the sport of pranking the village nerds,"** Starlight told him.

 **"Bring it!"** Toothless grinned. And it was on.

* * *

It started in the arena, with yet another speed lecture. Hiccup, Brenna were enthralled by the rush of information, but everyone else was bored out of their minds. Even Fishlegs was beginning to look disinterested. Suddenly, they started to giggle, and outright laugh out loud. Both nerds were confused.

"What's so funny?" Brenna asked. "This is a perfectly normal lecture about where Monstrous Nightmare generates their fire from!"

"Not the way Starlight tells it!" Astrid giggled. The blonde warrior was slowly beginning to lose her distrust about the new girl and her Night Fury. She was actually pretty cool and funny . . . and maybe Brenna was a decent person too underneath all the boundary issues.

"What do you mean, not the way . . . ohhh," Brenna sighed, as she saw Starlight mimicking her actions literally behind her back. "STARLIGHT!"

 **"Sorry, Brenna, but I've got something to prove!"** Starlight teased.

"Is the thing you have to prove your immaturity?" Brenna asked.

 **"I have a bet with Toothless that I can mess with you more than he could mess with his rider and I'm winning!"** Starlight explained, grinning.

 **"Don't claim victory yet, Starlight, this isn't over,"** Toothless sighed. Brenna and Hiccup became rather worried.

"This is rather worrying. I'll have to warn Toothless' rider about this," Hiccup muttered. Brenna facepalmed.

"You _are_ Toothless' rider," Brenna pointed out.

"Oh, yeah." Starlight and Toothless thought this was nothing short of hilarious, and rolled around on the floor laughing. "Anyway, I'll have to go through the contents of the forge so Toothless can't use it to prank me." He walked out of the arena and was met with a barrel of cold water right on his head. "AAARGH! TOOTHLESS!"

"For Thor's sake, Hiccup, this is ridiculous!" Brenna sighed, going outside to get Hiccup back inside. "How would Toothless be able to use the things in the forge? He doesn't even have-" She was cut off by a second barrel of cold water right on her head. "-opposable thumbs." Starlight and Toothless were in hysterics at the sight. "STARLIGHT!"

 **"This. Is. Priceless!"** Starlight shrieked.

 **"We should mess with them even more!"** Toothless declared.

"Am I the only one that's thinking this will be a long day?" Brenna asked, pushing a lock of wet hair out of her face as the other teenagers and all of the dragons howled with laughter at the two drenched dorks.

"For some reason, no," Hiccup replied.

* * *

That day turned into an array of pranks aimed at the two teens. Toothless set Hiccup on fire while he was working in the forge. Starlight periodically tripped Brenna with her tail. The piece de resistance came when the Night Furies did the unthinkable: stole their rider's prosthetic legs and played keep-away with it.

"Come on, Starlight, give it back! It's mine and I need it!" Brenna pleaded.

"For Thor's sake, this is just mean!" Hiccup pleaded. Meanwhile, Starlight and Toothless were messing with the spare legs of their riders.

*Norse **"Don't be such a baby; we're barely three feet from you. Just get up and walk,"** Starlight taunted.

"You expect me to walk when you have my leg? Starlight, you are an insufferable jerk of a dragon," Brenna snapped.

*Norse **"Aww, Brenna, I love you too,"** Starlight teased. Toothless was having a ball taunting Hiccup with what he couldn't have.

"Toothless, hand it over! Please!" Hiccup begged.

 **"No. You've been working far too much and if you can't walk, you can't work,"** Toothless rationalized. Suddenly, he had an idea about how to torture their nerdy riders so much more. He dropped the prosthetic somewhere out of reach and whispered in Starlight's ear, low enough for Brenna to not hear it and warn Hiccup, but loud enough for him not to have to repeat himself. Starlight grinned when she heard it; Toothless was just full of pranking ideas today.

 **"Oh, this is good. In fact, this is amazing!"** Starlight complimented. Toothless had an impish grin on his face. On humans, it looked mischievous, but on Night Furies, it looked utterly terrifying. **"Let's do it!"** The two dragged Hiccup and Brenna away from the village and towards the cove, their respective riders struggling and protesting all the way.

"Starlight, get off me! Where are you two taking us?" Brenna asked.

"Toothless, this can be resolved peacefully . . . right?" Hiccup gulped.

 **"Wrong. You two need to take a break and lighten up,"** Toothless told him. Despite not knowing what his dragon had said, Hiccup stayed quiet for the rest of the journey. He had a feeling that Toothless wasn't playing around.

*Dragonese "How long is this break supposed to be?" Brenna asked.

*Norse **"For as long as you need,"** Starlight simply said. This sent a chill down the dorks' spines. They were going to be there for a while. Suddenly, Hiccup and Brenna had their shoes taken from them, which were unceremoniously hurled into a corner of the cove. They were now barefoot.

"What could you possibly want with our shoes?" they blurted out.

 **"It's part of your break,"** Starlight explained. Toothless began to snuggle close to Hiccup, snuggling his torso in particular. Hiccup squirmed and giggled, embarrassed that Brenna was witnessing his humiliation. Starlight's claws traced Brenna's ribcage, enticing a ticklish squeak out of her. Then they realized, too late, what their Night Furies were about to do.

"Ohhh, Thor," they moaned, just before the Night Furies pounced.

"Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Hiccup howled, as Toothless blew raspberries all over his stomach. "Off, off, off!"

"Starlihihihihihihight, stohohohohop thahahahahat!" Brenna snickered, as Starlight tickled her ribs with dulled claws.

*Norse **"But you look so happy. You're even laughing! Why would you want it to stop?"** Starlight taunted.

"IHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIT TIHIHIHICKLES!" the two pleaded, their faces turning red with laughter. Brenna tried to get away, but then Starlight pinned her down to give her more torturous tickles. Her laughter rang throughout the cove.

 **"Hey, I have an idea. How about we go for their feet next?"** Toothless suggested. Starlight grinned. **"I've done it to Hiccup before, and he goes nuts."**

 **"Brenna has it bad there, too,"** Starlight admitted. **"But I want them to be too tired to think before we go there."** Brenna could understand them perfectly and tried to warn Hiccup, but she was laughing too hard. Tears rolled down both the nerds' faces as they screamed with ticklish hysteria. Neither of the two geeky Night Fury riders were able to move for laughing too hard. Suddenly, they felt tailfins gliding up and down the soles of the one foot that they each had and they let out screeches of laughter.

"GAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hiccup laughed, a fist pounding on the earth floor of the cove.

"NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Brenna screamed, her face turning red with exertion and embarrassment.

 **"Daww, aren't they cute?"** Starlight cooed, unintentionally giving Brenna a rare break to breathe. Toothless nodded.

 **"Who knew that nerds were this ticklish? I would have exploited this so much if I knew this earlier,"** Toothless remarked.

 **"Who says you can't? We live with them, remember?"** Starlight pointed out, and both Night Furies grinned. A chill went down both riders' spines, despite the fact that only one of them understood what they were saying. **"Let's take them home."** Toothless and Starlight picked up Hiccup and Brenna and carried them home, taking back alleys to not be seen by anyone. Once the two got home, the torture continued. Starlight had her own ticklish way with Brenna quite easily, considering that they lived alone with each other. But Toothless had it harder, since Stoick lived with them and would separate them if they were too loud, and he almost did. Unfortunately for Hiccup, Toothless was far too good at covering his tracks.

"What are you doing up there?" Stoick snapped, barging into Hiccup's room to find that Toothless was tickle-torturing his son. But that wasn't what Stoick saw. He saw Hiccup losing a wrestling match with a dragon. "Ah, you're wrestling, eh? Good to know you have normal hobbies, son. As you were." And then Stoick left.

"Wait, what?" Hiccup yelped, before being subjected to more torture by Toothless, who now knew that he had to keep Hiccup quiet somehow. So he started snuggling Hiccup very closely, with plenty of tickles on body parts Stoick wouldn't be able to see. Like the tailfin doing a serious number on Hiccup's torso or the claws working their way up and down his sides.

There were going to be two nerds on Berk that wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.


	9. Revenge of the nerds

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup and Brenna banded together to think of ways to get Toothless and Starlight back for the day of pranks they had been subjected to. "Putting them together was a terrible idea, especially considering my dragon has so much experience with pranks. She must have been the driving force behind it all."

"Don't forget about Toothless in all of this!" Hiccup warned. "Toothless has been an active participant in Loki Day ever since he got here! Once, he tricked Snotlout into locking himself into a dragon cage by telling him that there was yak butter parfait in it for him if he lasted a full day!"

"And Starlight's been planning pranks like this with me since diaper days!" Brenna snapped. "She hid inside a cave and tricked people into thinking the cave was cursed to have an evil spirit live inside it! People were buying each other good luck amulets to protect themselves from the big black demon!" Then a shared realization came across both of them at the same time.

"Wait a minute . . . they can't _both_ be the bad influence . . . can they?" They groaned and put their heads in their hands, looking remarkably similar as they bemoaned their bad luck of introducing a prankster to another prankster.

"Enough moaning, we need a plan of action," Brenna told Hiccup. "A prank that people will honour for generations! What can we use to mess with them?"

"Eels?" Hiccup suggested.

"Not specific enough and too cruel. Bright lights?"

"Wouldn't hurt them and they'd probably enjoy that. Dragon traps?"

"The possibility of innocent bystanders being caught in the middle is too high." The village milquetoasts sighed and watched the Night Furies interact to see if there was any weakness that they could manipulate. And that was when they had a breakthrough.

 **"And that was when Brenna saw the sword and - EEEK!"** Starlight cut herself off with a terrified shriek as she perched on top of an unfortunate person's house. **"SPIDER!"**

 **"Holy Thor!"** Toothless yelped, stamping on the spider until it was dead. **"Starlight, it's fine. The spider's dead now."** Starlight slowly came down and nuzzled Toothless gratefully.

 **"Oh, thank you, Toothless. How did you do it?"** Starlight asked.

 **"I can only do it because I'm bigger. If I wasn't, I would be as scared as you,"** Toothless admitted. Meanwhile, Brenna translated to Hiccup in the background as the two had devious grins on their faces. Then the two nerds ducked away to the forge. They had a plan to enact.

* * *

"What are you two nerds doing?" Astrid asked, after Hiccup and Brenna had spent a total of two hours working in the forge. She didn't like this Brenna girl hanging around with her Hiccup.

"Getting Toothless and Starlight back for yesterday," Hiccup blurted out. Brenna glared at him.

"Keep telling people that and we'll never be able to get them back," she sighed.

"I'm with you two on this one," Astrid said, surprising them. "Toothless and Starlight's pranks seemed funny, but that was when they were only aimed at you. They're taking their pranks around the village."

"What did they do?" Hiccup and Brenna tiredly chorused.

"They locked everyone's dragons inside the arena and hid the key!" Astrid told them.

"You continue with the plan; I'll unlock the dragons," Brenna ordered, as she left for the arena. A bunch of dragons bombarded her with complaints about Toothless and Starlight. Or at least, they bombarded the gates. Every species of dragon that was on Berk was crammed into the arena (every species except the Night Fury, that is). Even Terrible Terrors had fallen for the trap.

 **"Help! Toothless and Starlight locked us in here! Help!"** a male blue Deadly Nadder ordered. Brenna took off her brooch and started picking the lock.

*Dragonese "How did they get all of you in here at once?" Brenna asked. Needless to say, the dragons freaked out.

 **"Holy Thor, the stupid Terrible Terrors were right for once!"**

 **"We're not as dumb as you think, you know!"** a peeved Terrible Terror snapped.

 **"How does she know this? The language is called Dragonese for a reason!"**

 **"Who taught her?"** She ignored them all as she picked the lock with her brooch and let them out.

*Dragonese "Where did they go?" Brenna asked.

 **"That way!"** the dragons chimed, pointing with wings and claws to the forest nearby.

*Dragonese "Thanks," Brenna replied as she moved to let all the dragons leave without being crushed to death in the chaos. She then went back to the forge and reported everything to Hiccup and Astrid.

"Toothless and Starlight had locked them up in the arena and are now hiding in the forest to escape both us and the other dragons," Brenna relayed. "So temporarily, the entire dragon population hates them." A wicked grin spread across Brenna's face. "I think I know of a good way to get ourselves some help and spread the word."

"I'll continue with these plans, then," Hiccup muttered, as Brenna walked away.

"Why do they look like spiders?" Astrid asked.

"Never you mind," Hiccup huffed. Brenna met up with Hookfang, who was very thankful for the release.

 **"Brenna, thank you so much. Whatever you need, just let me know and I'll get it done,"** Hookfang promised.

*Dragonese "Oh, you will, will you? Would you mind spreading this message to all the other dragons on Berk?" Brenna asked sweetly.

 **"Of course I could! What's the message?"** Hookfang asked.

*Dragonese "Tell all the other dragons to tell Toothless and Starlight that there's a new breed of extra large spider in Berk, OK?" Brenna instructed.

 **"Got it!"** Hookfang eagerly replied, as he flew off. Brenna returned to the forge, grabbed a few pieces of paper and started scribbling down utter nonsense.

"What the Thor are you writing about?" Hiccup asked.

"The possibly mythical breed of giant grey spiders, if you must know," Brenna replied.

"Those aren't real," Hiccup and Astrid chorused.

"Toothless and Starlight don't know that," Brenna pointed out. Hiccup grinned deviously.

"This is going to be really fun to watch," Astrid noted. "Don't you worry your nerdy little heads about it; my lips are sealed. This is far too fun to blab about." Astrid then walked away, searching for popcorn.

"How do you know that they'll read it?" Hiccup asked.

"Starlight's a snoop and Toothless can read," Brenna analyzed. "Qualities like that will end up in both of them knowing what it says."

"Now this is interesting," Hiccup laughed. "Hey, Brenna, pass me that wrench, will you?"

* * *

Meanwhile, the other dragons were fuming about Toothless and Starlight's harmless little prank. **"What were those two thinking?"** Stormfly fumed. **"They know that I hate being locked up in there! And we can't all fit in there!"**

 **"Well, we did,"** a Terrible Terror stupidly pointed out. A Gronckle smacked him with their paw. **"OW!"** Hookfang came flying in in a frenzy, panting for air and his scales flaming up.

 **"Whoa, Hookfang, no need to make an entrance, we all see you!"** Barf joked. The other dragons laughed.

 **"I have a message from Brenna for you,"** Hookfang panted.

 **"Who's Brenna?"** an old Deadly Nadder asked.

 **"She got us out of the arena,"** Meatlug explained. **"She spoke Dragonese and asked us where Toothless and Starlight went. She told me to give a message to all of you."**

 **"The helpful human!"** one head of an old Zippleback remembered. **"Relay the message! She helped us, so we should help her!"** The other dragons quickly agreed.

 **"She told me to tell all of you to tell Toothless and Starlight that there was a new breed of extra large spider in Berk,"** Hookfang relayed. It was an odd message, and Hookfang knew it. **"I don't know why she wanted me to tell you this. It's weird."**

 **"Maybe she has a plan of some kind to mess with those pesky Night Furies,"** a Monstrous Nightmare suggested.

 **"Whether she does or doesn't, we should adhere to tradition,"** an especially old Gronckle declared. **"We find the human food called popcorn and we watch what happens while eating it!"**

 **"Yeah!"** all the other dragons (minus the Night Furies) cheered.

* * *

Toothless and Starlight were giggling at the memory of tricking every dragon in the village into going into the arena and then locking the gate and running away. **"You remember their faces?"** Toothless laughed.

 **"Priceless! We should do it again!"** Starlight suggested. The two giggled, and eventually laughed. Nobody was there to tell them off. They were free from their nerdy, killjoy humans. They were in charge, not them. As they celebrated, they sniffed the air. Fish. Both Night Furies became very, very hungry. Breakfast was _such_ a long time ago, after all.

 **"That raw fish smells divine,"** Toothless sighed, smiling. **"And it's . . . in Berk?"**

 **"We'll have to avoid the other dragons. They're still mad at us for the whole 'trapping every dragon inside the arena' thing,"** Starlight warned. **"Maybe our riders will get some for us."**

 **"But what if they're still annoyed about yesterday?"** Toothless asked.

 **"Dammit, you're right. We'll have to get it ourselves,"** Starlight sighed. **"Come on."** The two Night Furies slipped into Berk to get their own fish. They didn't want to see their riders or the other dragons. It wouldn't end well.

After sneaking a sizeable amount of fish from the docks, they sneaked over to the Great Hall, where they found Hiccup, Astrid and Brenna reading a few papers. They tried to sneak out of the forge, but they were caught. Starlight knocked over an axe and that collapsed onto a shield. There was a loud bang as the two made contact. The three teens jumped and looked at the two guilty Night Furies.

"Oh, hello, you two," Hiccup smiled, gracing the dragons with a smile before going back to the papers. This was annoying them already.

*Norse **"What are you reading?"** Starlight asked.

"Just something about the giant grey spider. It's actually really interesting," Brenna replied. "And what a coincidence! They're about the same size as you! Possibly even bigger! It's incredible!"

*Norse **"You don't seriously believe them?"** Starlight asked. *Norse **"There's no proof that they're real!"**

"There's no proof that they aren't," Astrid pointed out. Toothless and Starlight looked at each other, then to the three dragon riders . . . and laughed their scales off.

*Norse **"This is ridiculous!"** Starlight mocked. *Norse **"You're getting worked up over nothing!"**

 **"Have fun searching for something that isn't real!"** Toothless taunted, as they left the Great Hall laughing hysterically to each other. **"Giant grey spiders! I think our humans are crazy."**

 **"I don't think our humans are crazy; I know our humans are crazy!"** Starlight had to one-up Toothless with the insults concerning their humans. If they became good friends first, then they could progress to being a couple later. At least, that was how she saw it.

 **"I wonder what the other dragons would say when we tell them about the dumb things our human just told us,"** Toothless wondered. **"They probably wouldn't believe it."** As they walked, they bumped into Hookfang, who suddenly seemed eager to talk to them.

 **"Have you heard?"** he asked.

 **"Heard what?"** Toothless and Starlight chorused.

 **"About the giant grey spider, of course. I can't believe you haven't heard about it by now,"** Hookfang gossiped.

 **"I thought those weren't real,"** Toothless muttered.

 **"Oh, they're real, all right. Ask anyone,"** Hookfang smiled, as he flew away. Confused, the two Night Furies went and asked around, and got the same answers.

 **"Of course they're real!"**

 **"I heard they're venomous, with fangs as big as my claws! No, bigger than that!"**

 **"Aren't they around your size? It would be pretty cool to see you standing next to one of these spiders."** Toothless and Starlight were beginning to get rather scared. Neither wanted to deal with giant spiders. They hated dealing with normal, tiny spiders. Neither Toothless nor Starlight could comprehend the possibility of spiders as big as themselves. Nevertheless, the two Night Furies were seriously spooked.

 **"This is crazy,"** Starlight blurted out. She talked a lot when she was nervous. **"Giant grey spiders? It's absolutely ridiculous that-"** A rustle was heard from the bushes. The Night Furies jumped. **"What was that? Hello? Who is it? Come out and face us!"** There was no reply.

 **"Let's just keep walking,"** Toothless soothed. **"I'm sure there's some fish in the arena."** They two continued on their journey, when they heard scratching against a wooden surface. **"Holy Thor!"**

 **"What's going on?"** Starlight whimpered. **"Maybe there _are_ giant grey spiders?"**

 **"That can't be right,"** Toothless scoffed, nuzzling Starlight's neck to reassure her. But as they turned a corner, they found the biggest web they had ever seen. And a big web could only be made by a big spider. The two Night Furies gulped fearfully. **"Maybe we should get going a little faster."**

 **"I think you're right,"** Starlight hurriedly agreed, as they started running. They got to the arena all out of breath, their stomachs pleading for food. But once Toothless and Starlight got settled, they heard the rustling sounds that had followed them everywhere. It was driving them insane. Both got up to see what was making such an annoying noise. Light seemed to be shining on it, allowing a shadow of a wiry but strong-looking leg to be seen. The two went to get a closer look . . . and saw two giant grey spiders. The stories were horribly, horribly real.

 **"GIANT GREY SPIDER! RUN!"** Toothless and Starlight screamed, as they raced back to the arena, where they could expect to find fish and warmth. They didn't expect to find two large buckets of paint attached to a wire that Hiccup and Brenna yanked on to bring it cascading down on their heads. A sea of red, blues, greens, yellows, whites and pinks fell onto the terrified Night Fury's heads. After witnessing all that, neither of the two dragon riders could hold in their laughter any longer, and they collapsed with mirth.

"And that's revenge for yesterday!" Brenna laughed.

 **"What?"** they chorused, utterly shocked. The nerds laughed hysterically. That was when the memories of all their pranks hit them like a ton of bricks. Starlight was on the defence almost immediately.

 **"Hey, we may have messed with you a little, but there was no reason for you to use paint on us!"** Starlight snapped. The nerds faltered, their celebrations quieting.

 **"Did you take us and our feelings into account at all?"** Toothless snapped. Hiccup and Brenna stopped celebrating altogether and started looking rather guilty. The Night Furies had their respective humans by their emotions, and there was nothing either of them could do about it. All they had to do now was wait for their humans overactive and flawed sense of logic to decide their next actions.

"Wow. When you put it all into perspective like that, we really did go too far," Brenna murmured, hanging her head.

"We should make it up to them by getting all that paint off them," Hiccup decided. Toothless and Starlight flashed smug grins at each other. They were the undisputed masters of manipulation.

"The cove should be the perfect place to clean them off. Lots of space and privacy for them," Brenna gushed. "How about you wait there for us?"

 **"These humans are dumber than what we give them credit for,"** Starlight whispered to Toothless, as they left.

 **"This is nothing. You should see the things they get up to when they try to find the answer to something,"** Toothless whispered back, as he led Starlight to a shortcut. Hiccup and Brenna looked at each other and high-fived each other.

"It's working perfectly," Brenna whispered.

"I can't wait for the next part," Hiccup grinned.

* * *

 **"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO MOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHORE!"** Toothless laughed, as paint was scrubbed off his wings. Why on earth would the gods feel the need to give him such insanely ticklish wings?

*Norse **"WE'LL NEHEHEHEHEHEVER PRANK YOU AGAHAHAHAHAHAHAIN!"** Starlight promised, while Brenna washed the paint off her stomach.

"Really? You won't?" Brenna asked, teasingly. "Nothing? Nothing at all from either of you?"

 **"NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOTHING EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEVER AGAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAIN!"** they swore. Brenna translated for Hiccup, and the two geeks came to a compromise.

"Well, we have good news and bad news. The good news is we agree and promise not to prank you if you don't prank us," Hiccup announced.

*Norse **"WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAT'S THE BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAD NEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEWS?"** Starlight asked.

"The bad news is you're still covered in paint, and it's going to take a while to come off," Brenna replied, scrubbing at Starlight's scales much harder. The last two Night Furies screamed with laughter as tears of mirth flowed out of their eyes like miniature rivers.

 **"NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"** Toothless and Starlight howled.

* * *

After the paint had finally been cleaned off, Toothless and Starlight opted not to sleep in the house with their riders, who would likely take advantage of how sensitive they had (temporarily) become and torture them all night, like they had done before. On their way to a reliable abandoned barn, they bumped into Hookfang, Stormfly, Barf, Belch and Meatlug. "Oh, hey, you guys," Toothless greeted. Hookfang grinned.

 **"Guess what a little birdy told us about you two,"** Hookfang snickered. He, Barf and Belch trapped Toothless, while Stormfly and Meatlug stood close to Starlight.

 **"What did the little birdy say?"** Toothless asked.

 **"Oh, I'm sure you'll find out,"** Stormfly grinned as they pounced. Toothless and Starlight were in for a very long night.


	10. Magic happens in Berk

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

In the early hours of the morning, Starlight snuck back into the house and was caught by Brenna. "Where were you?" the witch asked.

 **"Just out with friends,"** Starlight replied. It wasn't like it was a lie. She had been out with Stormfly and Meatlug . . . being tickled senseless all night long.

"Oh, never mind. I'm just glad you're back," Brenna smiled, as a hand scratched the dragon's stomach. Starlight forced down giggles as she squirmed away from her mischievous rider.

 **"Brenna, no! You know that's a sensitive spot!"** Starlight whined. **"I bet Toothless doesn't have to deal with the same antics with Hiccup."**

* * *

While this was going on, Toothless was sneaking back into the house through the open window and woke Hiccup up. "Where were you?" the blacksmith's apprentice asked. Toothless replied using the written word.

OUTSIDE.

"Oh, very funny, bud," Hiccup replied. "What were you doing outside?"

GETTING MYSELF SOMETHING TO EAT. I WAS HUNGRY.

"And what did you get to eat, seeing as you were so hungry?" Hiccup asked. Toothless froze, and his rider grinned. "Thought so, bud. You're about a good as liar as me, and I'm a terrible liar." He poked and prodded at Toothless' sides, and the dragon muffled his laughter. It was utterly adorable, and it wasn't any less cute when he started pounding on the floor, pleading for mercy in Dragonese.

 **"No more, Hiccup! Get off me!"** Toothless pleaded. **"I bet Starlight doesn't have to deal with the same antics with Brenna."**

"Come on, baby boo," Hiccup teased. "We've got a fighting lesson to go to. You don't have to do any work. "

 **"Again? I remember the last lesson and it didn't go well,"** Toothless sighed, as they took off. They got there just in time to help Gobber set up some fighting dummies. They were basically wooden, spiky totem poles that had a sword in one hand (or at least, at the end of one horizontal stick near the top) and a shield in the other. The front of the dummy was covered in spikes and a worn tunic. (The worn tunic was probably for the sake of making it look slightly like a real person.) There were two poles near the bottom, purely to trip people up while they were fighting the dummy. As the other teenagers filed in, Hiccup saw that Astrid was rather nervous and refused to look at Brenna. Starlight would occasionally glare at Astrid. Brenna had no such nerves, which was one good thing.

"All right, kids, today you'll be practicing how to fight using these dummies," Gobber explained, as he pushed a cart of weapons into the arena. "This should be relatively simple concept to grasp, just grab a sword and shield from the cart and start practicing." The teens groaned and obliged. The next few minutes were dedicated to the teens being beaten up by training dummies.

"OW! Where did that come from?" Hiccup yelped.

"By the gods, that hurt!" Astrid complained.

"No more!" the twins pleaded.

"Right in the gut!" Fishlegs choked, as he got a shield to the abdomen.

"I can do this! I can do this! I - AAARGH!" Snotlout screamed, as he narrowly avoided a sword to the face. Brenna was simply fine with it. She avoided the dummy's sword with the shield and jabbed at the dummy with her sword, ducking and weaving to escape the training dummy's sword. Gobber was impressed.

"Brenna, have you been up against these before?" Gobber asked.

"I've seen them before," Brenna replied. "It's simple once you get the hang of it."

"Really?" Hiccup asked, just as he got hit in the head by the dummy. "Where did you see them before?"

"Back in my old village," Brenna explained. "They would put kids up against dummies like this to toughen them up and prepare them for the army. My dad bought one off them and kept it so he could test it out on his kids and nephews."

"Where is your old village?" Astrid asked, as she got tripped up on the poles near her feet. Brenna froze up and stepped back from the training dummy.

"I'd . . . rather not talk about it," Brenna muttered.

"How do you navigate this thing?" Snotlout babbled.

"Stop the sword by blocking it with the shield and jab at the dummy with your own, dodge the sword and keep your feet moving to escape the rotating poles," Brenna explained. "It's easy once you think about it." She stepped forward and started to attack the dummy with more vigour than before. The shield was punched out of the dummy's hands (if you could call them that) and the head was knocked off of the dummy's shoulders with her real foot. Everyone was stunned.

"Brenna, you're excused from this to help other students," Gobber replied. Brenna nodded and went to the person who was the most beat up. Obviously, this was Hiccup. Poor kid.

"I'm blocking it with my shield and nothing's happening," Hiccup replied.

"You need to put more force behind your arm to stop the sword," Brenna explained. Hiccup tried it and it worked.

"Thanks!" he smiled.

"You're welcome!" Brenna replied, smiling back. Astrid was secretly livid at that simple friendly gesture.

"And how do you dodge the poles that sweep your feet out from under you?" Snotlout asked.

"You'll have to keep moving your feet," Brenna advised. "You're fighting the training dummy like your feet are glued to the ground." Snotlout nodded and continued with the training, not looking at Brenna so she didn't notice his blush. Astrid refused any help from Brenna. She refused to let Brenna show her up, even if it meant letting the dummy beat her up. Ruffnut and Tuffnut didn't ask for help because they had already been knocked out before Brenna could get to them. This was definitely going to be a more interesting lesson that would happen again and again until their bruise's bruises had bruises.

"All right, lesson's over, you can go," Gobber yelled. "Brenna, good work."

"Thank you," Brenna smiled, as she left. Astrid seethed at how happy she was. Brenna had even smiled at her _boyfriend_. That was unforgivable in her eyes. They rescued her and her dragon from an uninhabited island to receive this as their thanks? Today felt like a day for chopping down trees (something Astrid did to compensate for being unable to throw the axe at people). She sighed, attached the axe to her hip and went into the Great Hall with her friends for lunch. They gravitated towards Brenna and ignored her.

"That was so cool!" Snotlout yelled, attracting attention from a couple of hungover nearby Vikings, who tutted at the obnoxious teen making their headaches worse. "Who taught you to do that?"

"My father did," Brenna replied. "He wanted me to be able to defend myself in case someone wanted to abuse and take advantage of me, so I trained with a dummy like that while he taught me how to kick and punch and how to properly wield a weapon. No child of his was going to be a weakling and he would make sure of it himself with every spare moment we had. If he didn't have the time, then he would hand me over to an uncle so I could train alongside him and my cousins. It stepped up after I had finished the recovery period for my leg."

"You have cousins?" Snotlout blurted out. Brenna gave him a sceptical look.

"Of course I have cousins. Everyone has cousins, unless both of their parents were only children or neither of their parent's siblings had children. You've just never met my cousins," Brenna told them.

"Do you have brothers? Sisters?" Fishlegs asked.

"I have two older brothers, twins. The closest I have to a sister is Starlight, though," Brenna explained, as she took a bite of some mutton. This was the first time hearing of Brenna having any family to speak of, and they clung to it. It made her seem normal, more likeable. "It was hard to leave, but I had to. I couldn't take it."

"Couldn't take what?" Astrid asked. Starlight answered for her.

*Norse **"The people that thought it was funny to make her life a living nightmare,"** she explained. *Norse **"The village she comes from isn't good to people with prosthetic limbs, and it was never the same to her after she and her father ran into a bunch of pirates having a bad day. They didn't like me either, and one day we decided no more. We got a saddle, a few changes of clothes and some money for food and we left in the middle of the night. Brenna left a note for her parents explaining that it wasn't their fault but they had to go before it got worse for us. We were travellers after that, going from place to place searching for a home. Eventually, we settled on the island, after having to flee from one place to the next. Then you found us, and we're here telling you this."** The gang stared at them, shocked.

"How bad were they?" Hiccup asked.

"That's . . . another thing I don't like to talk about," Brenna sighed. "I left my birth village because I needed to get away from my past, but answering all these questions makes it seem as if it follows me and I can never escape it and who I am. There always seems to be something that reminds me of a past I'd rather forget." She took a melancholy bite of mutton and chewed her reverse nostalgia away. Nearby, a rowdy bunch of Vikings were having an axe throwing competition between themselves.

"Come on Sigurd, three sheep says you've lost your touch," Gobber laughed. Sigurd, a fat man with a blonde beard, glared at him and stepped towards the target as if it had insulted his mother and defecated on his doorstep. (The target in question was a barrel painted to look like a bullseye.)

"Watch and weep, smithy," he growled, as he steadied his arm, poised to hit the bullseye with the one-handed axe. But something went wrong with the axe. The head slipped off and went flying behind him. The other men laughed, but stopped once he saw that it was about to hit a little girl. She saw the axe head coming and screamed, putting up her hands to defend herself. It seemed like it was all too late, and everyone in the Great Hall shut their eyes so they didn't have to see the horrible moment.

But it never came. Eventually, everyone opened their eyes to find the axe floating there, suspended by what looked like blue flames. People gasped and pointed, whispering. This was magic, plain and simple. But who was doing it? Whoever it was had saved a little girl's life.

"There is some sort of witch or warlock among us!" a woman cried. "Let's search for them!" A wide berth had been formed around the floating axe head, and Brenna now knew that it was safe to let it float to the ground. It couldn't hurt anyone now.

The little girl was curious. While the axe head floated to the ground, she started looking around for the person that helped her. Brenna was busy letting the axe slowly descend down to the floor. Originally, she was going to stay away from the teenagers, but there was something about the girl with the red hair in a bun that was intriguing to her. She looked at her hands and saw the same blue ribbons. "Mommy, it's her! She did it!" she yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear. People stared at Brenna, who tried to make herself seem smaller and less noticeable. It wasn't working.

"Was that really you?" her father asked. His eyes were full of happiness aimed at the person who saved his daughter. Brenna had been caught. She could only hang her head and admit to all of it.

"Yes, it was me who stopped the axe head in midair," Brenna admitted. People cheered.

"You saved her life!" her mother sobbed, hugging a very confused Brenna. "How can we repay you?"

"Let's throw her off the island!" Mildew yelled, halting the festivities of a child not dying a tragically early death to throw out the girl he never liked the look of in the first place. "She is a witch and that goes against everything Berk stands for, so she and her dragon must be exiled from Berk and all the waters under its control!"

"She saved a kid's life by being a witch!" Gobber yelled. "You're not seriously trying to get rid of someone who just saved a life, are you? I always knew that you were a heartless old grouch."

"She's dangerous!" Mildew yelled. Nobody believed him.

"Ah, shut up, you cabbage-loving old fart!" Gobber yelled. "He hasn't got the power to throw anyone or their dragon off the island. Don't worry about him. You're a hero, just you remember that."

"Thank you, Gobber. By any chance, do you know where that little girl is?" Brenna asked. "I'd like to properly meet her." She felt a tugging at her pant leg and saw the girl. Now she could properly see the girl, she noticed a few details. She was a brunette with blue eyes, and they stared up at Brenna adoringly.

"Hello," she shyly replied. Brenna kneeled down to talk to her on her own eye level.

"Hello there, little one. My name is Brenna Bloodsword. Who are you?" Brenna asked. The girl smiled at her.

"I'm Hilda Svenson," Hilda replied. "Thank you, Brenna, for helping me."

"You're welcome, little one," Brenna smiled.

"How are you able to do the magic thing that you did earlier?" Hilda asked. "I want to see something like that again!" Others were also eager to see more magic. They'd never met a witch before.

"Oh, you do, huh?" Brenna asked. "I can show you a bit of magic with some paper." She produced some paper and a small stick of charcoal (pencils hadn't been invented yet) and started to draw a butterfly. It was beautiful and very realistic. Hilda giggled.

"Can I keep it, Brenna? Please?" Hilda pleaded. "It's so pretty!"

"Shhh, I have something to show you," Brenna grinned. "Watch this." She seemed to pick at the drawing with her fingernails, and people watched in awe as a black and white butterfly fluttered away. Hilda watched in awe, before excitedly running back to her parents. Her mind had been utterly blown. Astrid was very interested in this new revelation.

"Why didn't you say anything about you being a witch?" Astrid asked.

"A lot of people react to witches the same way as Mildew did just now," Brenna replied. "Some of the places Starlight and I had gone to had laws in place that allowed witches like me to be killed on discovery, even though I never wanted any trouble. I wanted somewhere for me and Starlight to live and call home after leaving my birth village. This place had no problem with my prosthetic leg or my dragon, but I was terrified that Starlight and I would be kicked out of the perfect place for us . . . or worse."

"You can't be kicked out after saving someone's life! I'll talk to my dad about it!" Hiccup promised.

"No need, Hiccup," Stoick replied. "I saw everything. She's staying." People whooped, and Mildew had half a mind to storm out. "Far be it from me to exile someone for saving a life."

"She could get us hurt with magic like that!" Mildew yelled. "Didn't you see that, Stoick? Didn't you see what she did?"

"I saw a butterfly fly away from a piece of paper. And although I've never met a witch before now, I was told about a very important thing to never do with witches back when I was a boy," Stoick informed.

"And what would that be?" Mildew snapped.

"Don't make them angry," Stoick replied, smiling a mischievous smile that didn't seem to belong on his face. "Thor knows what would happen if she was." Leaving the hall full of laughing Vikings behind him, Stoick walked out. Then, and only then, did Mildew actually storm out in a huff. He planned to slam the door behind him, but Stoick had shut it, so he opened the door really far and shut it. Astrid saw this as a chance to get closer to Brenna.

"What else can your magic do?" Astrid asked.

"Well, there's a disappearing spell that I can use in case of an emergency," Brenna smiled. Astrid was intrigued.

"And what does this spell look like?" Astrid asked. "Could you show us?" Brenna nodded, snapped her fingers . . . and disappeared in a puff of smoke. People gasped, and people tried to look for the redheaded witch, but she was gone. Starlight had taken this time to sneak out, too, so the only one possibly able to tell anyone where Brenna was had also vanished.

"Oh, great. Now they're both gone. What do we do now?" Snotlout snapped.

"We'll have to wait until tomorrow for her to show us anything else," Hiccup consoled.

"You reckon Brenna's magic can be used for pranks?" Ruffnut asked.

"Don't start that around me," Astrid warned.

"You are no fun, my flaxen-haired friend," Tuffnut sighed.

* * *

Brenna and Starlight were at home, giggling about how they managed to get out of the Great Hall. **"I can't believe that worked!"** Starlight giggled. **"I thought I'd be detected. I thought you'd be detected!"**

"Don't be so pessimistic, my scaly companion. We have done this often enough to make us professionals in our own right," Brenna grinned. "Remember all the practice we put into escaping. First it was embarrassing family reunions, now an entire hall full of people saw us make our unstoppable exit."

 **"Yes, I suppose we are utter geniuses, masters of escape and trickery,"** Starlight boasted, and the two laughed.

"Except for possibly this morning."

 **"Not a word to anyone. Got it?"**

"Absolutely."


	11. Translation and friendships

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

In the morning, Brenna and Starlight were woken up by someone pounding on the door. "Brenna? Brenna, are you up?" It sounded like Astrid.

"I am now!" Brenna snapped, sticking her head out of the window. "What do you want?"

"I just want to talk to you," Astrid yelled, staring up at Brenna, who was on the top floor.

"Let me get changed and then I'll be right to you," Brenna told her. She closed the window and started to get changed. She chose a knee length blue dress with pockets and grey leggings underneath them. (Or whatever the Viking equivalent of leggings were back in their day.) She then put on her dark blue cloak with silver edges and went out to meet Astrid.

"That took longer than what I expected," Astrid commented, then freaked out. What if Brenna did something to her using magic . . . like turning her into a frog or some other slimy, disgusting pest? Stoick said not to get witches angry, and she'd done it. She felt like an idiot, and soon, she would be a dead/deformed idiot. But Brenna just looked slightly annoyed.

"You don't need to put it like that, you know," Brenna sighed. "Anyway, you said you wanted to talk to me. What about?"

"I . . . I . . . " Astrid was speechless. Brenna took pity on her.

"Astrid, you look stressed and lost for words. How about you try again later?" Brenna asked kindly.

"Y-yeah," Astrid agreed. Brenna walked past her. Starlight flew over the house and landed just to eyeball Astrid.

*Norse **"What are you doing, still standing here? Brenna's already gone,"** Starlight snapped. She didn't want to see Astrid near Brenna under any circumstances.

"I just wanted to talk, OK? Brenna and I, one on one," Astrid stammered. Starlight growled, but stood down anyway.

*Norse **"Fine. But if you make her cry, then don't expect me to play nice with you,"** Starlight told her, before flying off in Brenna's direction. There were no lessons planned today, and Brenna was just going to get herself some eggs. People smiled at her, and a Terrible Terror flew onto her shoulder as she tried to eat a hunk of break that she had walked out of the house with. (She hadn't had breakfast yet and she was hungry.)

 **"Nice bit of food you have there. I bet you wouldn't mind if I had a little bite,"** he snickered, as he leaned in closer. Before he could sink his teeth into it, Brenna took the whole hunk of bread, shoved it in her mouth, and covered it with her hand so nobody saw her chewing on something bigger than her mouth. When she had finally swallowed the hunk of bread, she took her hand away from her mouth and answered him.

*Dragonese "Steal someone else's food," the witch told him. The Terrible Terror was spooked and flew away, freaked out that a human understood him. Brenna approached a stall selling eggs. "Good day, sir. What prices do you have?"

"What did you do to that dragon?" the stall owner asked, terrified. "I know you're a witch, but this is insane."

"I told him to steal someone else's food," Brenna replied. "Now, what are your prices?" The stall owner was about to tell her, when they heard a commotion in the village plaza. A dragon, specifically a green Nadder, was destroying things in a sort of temper tantrum. The owner was a man Brenna recognized as Sigurd, the man who unintentionally almost killed a little girl. He was trying to subdue his dragon, but to no avail.

"Calm down, Sharpclaw! What is wrong with you?" the confused man yelled. The stall owner hid, and Brenna calmly walked over to Sharpclaw and their owner. She still wasn't sure whether Sharpclaw was male or female, so she was sticking with they/them pronouns until she could be sure of the dragon's gender.

"What's going on?" Brenna asked, confused.

"Sharpclaw went nuts out of nowhere!" Sigurd yelled. "I just called him 'big guy' and he went crazy! He's done this before, but never this bad!" Brenna nodded and approached Sharpclaw, who was currently setting things on fire and sending poisonous spikes in every direction.

*Dragonese "Sharpclaw, you need to calm down. Look at me," Brenna instructed. Sharpclaw stopped and stared at her. Most people did. She'd made a rampaging dragon stop by just growling at it. Or at least, that was what it sounded like.

 **"How do you understand me?"** Sharpclaw asked, shocked.

*Dragonese "I learned from another dragon when I was a child. It helps sometimes," Brenna explained, soothing the Deadly Nadder. *Dragonese "Now, what's making you so angry?"

 **"My rider is calling me horrible names,"** Sharpclaw confessed.

*Dragonese "Like what?" Brenna asked. Sharpclaw fidgeted on the spot, refusing to look Brenna in the eye. It was remarkable how human the Nadder seemed by using these characteristics.

 **"He calls me his big guy, the man, mister bigshot and daddio,"** Sharpclaw confided to the redheaded, peg-legged witch.

*Dragonese "Sharpclaw, I might as well tell you that those are all terms of endearment. The man's fond of you," Brenna pointed out.

 **"Terms of endearment for boys! I'm a girl!"** Sharpclaw yelled. Brenna nodded and turned to the shocked rider.

"I have a question for you. Is it true that you call your dragon pet names like big guy?" Brenna asked. Sigurd nodded.

"I thought it would be a good thing to call him. Two guys will know all about that sort of thing," the blonde confided.

 **"I told you!"** Sharpclaw yelled.

"You think Sharpclaw's male, right?" Brenna interrogated.

"Well, look at him!" Sigurd replied, gesturing to all of Sharpclaw's body. The outraged Nadder shrieked and tried to charge at her rider, but Brenna stood in between them, stopping Sharpclaw from getting any closer.

"You say Sharpclaw is male so you use so many masculine nicknames, but here's the kicker: your big guy isn't a guy," Brenna told him. People gasped. A few of them laughed.

"That can't be right! This is a boy dragon! I know it!" Sigurd yelled.

"Did you check?" Brenna asked. Sigurd turned red.

"Do I have to? I mean, he has green scales, and green is a boyish colour," Sigurd explained. Brenna sighed.

"Sir, the colour of a dragon's scales has nothing to do with their gender," Brenna pointed out. Sigurd's mind was blown.

"It doesn't?" he blurted out. Brenna shook her head.

"Let me ask you again. Did you check?" Brenna asked. Sigurd shook his head. Such a thing had never crossed his mind. Tentatively, he lifted up Sharpclaw's wing, looked underneath . . . and walked away looking very embarrassed. Looking at his face told everyone that Brenna was definitely right. Sharpclaw was so happy to see that her gender was finally being realized. It had been wrong for so long.

"This explains a lot, but why was she so angry at me?" Sigurd asked.

"How patient would you be with someone if they spent all day calling you little lady, madam and sweetie pie?" Brenna asked.

"I . . . I guess not," Sigurd sheepishly said. "Sharpclaw, I'm so sorry."

 **"Don't worry about it. You never knew,"** Sharpclaw soothed.

"What about a new name that's more . . . girly?" Sigurd suggested. "What does Sharpclaw think of that?"

 **"I don't want a new name!"** Sharpclaw negotiated. **"I'm fine with the one I have!"**

"She said she doesn't want a new name," Brenna translated. "She's fine with the one she already has." Sigurd sighed with relief.

The one-legged, multilingual ginger witch watched them try to negotiate with a sort of proud look on her face. She slipped off and went to the stall owner to get her eggs. He stammered and babbled incoherently throughout the transaction. Sighing, Brenna paid up, put all her eggs into one basket (a historically bad idea) paid for them and went home. She put a spell over them so they wouldn't fall out if they were jostled or pushed, and as she walked home, she whistled. Brenna was only a few inches away from the door when she was accosted by Mildew. He looked angry with her. "Look, girl, you need to stop casting your magic nonsense on dragons," Mildew snapped, jabbing his walking stick into her collar. "Stoick let you get away with it, but not me because I know better than that. You surprised by that, witch?"

"Not really. You interrupted a parent's joy for their child not being dead by suggesting that Starlight and I get thrown off the island. Now, I need to get back inside," Brenna coldly replied, as she went into her house and shut the door behind her. Mildew sputtered with confusion, which then turned into rage as he stormed off. Starlight unintentionally walked into him on her own way home. Mildew freaked out.

"Get away from me, talking dragon, in case the magic your rider uses is . . . is infectious and starts spreading to normal humans!" he shrieked. People gave him weird looks as he hobbled away. Starlight shook her head and went inside.

 **"What the Thor was that?"** Starlight asked.

"I have no idea," Brenna replied. "I'm just trying to get these eggs home. I didn't want to talk to him."

 **"Hey, did you get any fish while you were there?"** Starlight asked.

"I didn't go to the docks, so no," Brenna told her. Starlight sighed, and waltzed off. Brenna shook her head at the ridiculousness of it all.

 **"I have to do everything for myself these days,"** Starlight huffed, as she casually stole a bunch of fish from the docks. **"Ah, that's better. But I'm still hungry."**

"Hey! Who's going through my fish?" a disgruntled fisherman asked the air. "There was much more than this when I brought it back from the sea this morning!"

 **"Time to go!"** Starlight yelped, running away . . . and colliding with Toothless. **"Sorry, Toothless!"**

 **"Oh, don't worry about it, Starlight,"** Toothless soothed. **"I know you didn't mean it."** Starlight's heart raced.

 _ **He likes me! He really likes me!**_ an excited voice in her head squealed. **_He is so cute and he's taking so much of an interest in me. And we have so much in common!_**

 **"Uh, Starlight? Are you OK?"** Toothless asked. Starlight snapped out of it, and freaked out. She didn't want to turn Toothless away, not now!

 **"Yeah, just a little tired. And kinda hungry,"** she admitted. Her stomach rumbled, as if on cue. Toothless felt as if he had to help her.

 **"I'm sure that I've got some fish I didn't want to eat,"** Toothless soothed, as he walked Starlight over to his fish basket. **"You can have it if you want."**

 **"You're amazing, Toothless! Thank you!"** Starlight smiled, nuzzling Toothless. That was her food sorted, and just in time. Toothless was too smitten to say no to her. Who knew Night Fury eyes worked on other Night Furies? He was already willing to give Starlight anything she wanted at all (or at least, anything he could conceivably get her).

 **"Look at this! He's in loooooooove with her!"** a Terrible Terror giggled, pointing the couple out to his friends, who wolf-whistled and giggled along with him. Toothless ignored them. Starlight rolled her eyes at them. But they weren't done with the Night Furies just yet. **"Hey, you two! You do know mating season isn't for a few months, right?"** They giggled amongst themselves, confident that neither of them had anything to say in response to their awesomeness. Who said Terrible Terrors were incapable of trading insults with the best of them?

 **"Depends. You do know that Gothi isn't your real mother, right?"** Toothless asked. That shut them up really quick, and the Night Furies continued on their way. They were the ones who were laughing now.

 **"Oh, Toothless, you're so witty,"** Starlight giggled. Toothless blushed under his obsidian scales.

 **"Uh, thanks,"** he replied sheepishly, nuzzling her neck. Starlight smiled.

 **"Let's leave them alone. I know better than to mess with the lovey dovey ones,"** one Terrible Terror muttered. And then they flew off, trying to take their mind off the insult by scavenging for food from sympathetic (gullible) humans. The Night Furies continued talking when they came across their riders being unbelievably dorky, reading through the Book of Dragons and filling in the blanks. It was time to tease them.

*Norse **"Hello, resident dorks,"** Starlight cooed. The resident nerds rolled their eyes.

"Not now, you oversized scaly cats," Brenna sighed. Hiccup snickered. "We're just making a few edits to the amount of Night Fury knowledge that we have."

*Norse **"Well, why didn't you say?"** Starlight asked, happily allowing them to make all the edits they needed. Then they realized what Brenna had said, and the gall she possessed made them reel. *Norse **"Wait: did you just call us . . . oversized scaly cats?"**

"Yes," Brenna replied. "Yes, I did." The two Night Furies were dumbfounded that one human could have so much gall. Especially one fairly new to their customs. But they decided that since Brenna was a nerd, and an unruly one at that, they should treat her like one. So Brenna and Hiccup were both tackled to the floor and given the long, saliva-covered licks they hated.

"Ewwww!" they chorused.

"Enough!" Hiccup yelled, as he wiped dragon drool of his face. "I didn't even call you oversized scaly cats; Brenna did!"

"Now I have two things to deal with! How my friend just stabbed me in the back and how this stuff is never coming out of my clothes!" Brenna complained. Hiccup looked at her oddly.

"You have magic, right?" Hiccup asked. Brenna nodded. "Then use that!"

"I've tried all the cleaning spells I know. Night Fury saliva is immune!" Brenna sighed. The two Night Furies grinned. "In fact, a Night Fury's scales are immune to most spells, which means Night Furies are mostly spell-proof! It's so annoying!"

*Norse **"Daww, isn't that sweet? They're trying to figure out ways to get us back,"** Starlight taunted. *Norse **"But they never learned that we stole their prosthetics when they were tackled to the ground!"** Panicked, the dragon-obsessed dorks checked for prosthetics, only to find their dragons throwing them in their air and catching them in their teeth. Brenna rolled her eyes at them.

"Give them back," she instructed. Toothless and Starlight shook their heads and giggled like hatchlings. "Give them back." Again, the Night Furies refused. "This is your last chance. Hand them over." Once again, the Night Furies taunted their riders by toying with the prosthetics.

"Brenna, they won't hand them over. I have a spare prosthetic with me that you can borrow in the meantime," Hiccup offered.

"And I have magic, Hiccup. What you are about to learn is having that can be quite advantageous. Like so." Brenna grinned and whistled loudly. The prosthetics flew out of their unruly dragons' reach, which sent them crashing to the ground in a heap due to the loss of balance (like when someone starts losing a game of tug of war and the other team pulls them forward). They came to a stop in front of the resident witch, who plucked them out of midair and handed Hiccup his own prosthetic leg. "I've got it."

"I've noticed," Hiccup nervously stammered. Brenna was much tougher than he thought. The Night Furies groaned with pain as their bruises and sore spots were rubbed.

 **"Everything hurts,"** Toothless groaned.

 **"I should've known,"** Starlight lamented. Hiccup and Brenna giggled and went back to the Book of Dragons, but not before they took their prosthetic legs back and reattached them.

"What else can your magic do?" Hiccup asked. Brenna grinned.

"When you have magic, there is no telling how many opportunities are open to you," Brenna grinned. On that note, the twins sidled over with smirks on their faces.

"When you say opportunities, that wouldn't happen to include pranking opportunities, would it?" Tuffnut asked, curious.

"What good is magic without pranks?" Brenna grinned. "I used magic to prank people all the time when I was a kid! It was awesome!"

"This can't possibly end well," Hiccup groaned.

"How'd you do it? Teach us the way, master," the twins chorused, falling to their knees in prostration. Hiccup wondered just how badly this could end. He also wondered if he even wanted to know how badly this could end. There was a witch talking about pranks with the two biggest pranksters Berk had to offer. And now there was a possibility that Brenna was a born prankster too. And she had magic on her side. Oh, lucky them.

"Most of my pranks are retaliatory pranks after being teased by other people," Brenna explained. "A good prank I know about is for when people think it's funny to steal your food. I would make myself some special food that tastes awful and wait for people to steal it and eat it in front of you. The looks on their faces are utterly priceless!" The twins looked at Brenna like she'd just discovered fire. (At least, the pranking equivalent of it.)

"This is an utter revolution! Tell us more!" Ruffnut pleaded.

"Please don't tell them more. The village won't be able to take it," Hiccup begged.

"What's going on?" Astrid asked, eavesdropping on their conversation. Nobody knew that she'd been eavesdropping, and they thought that she'd just arrived.

"We're trying to learn how to use Brenna's magic to prank people," Tuffnut blurted out. Astrid glared at him.

"Don't tell them anything," Astrid warned Brenna.

"I've been telling her that already," Hiccup muttered. Starlight saw Astrid warning Brenna, misinterpreted the situation and jumped to her rider's defence.

*Norse **"You leave Brenna alone,"** Starlight growled. Toothless was also on his guard, worried that Starlight would end up hurting someone or being hurt herself. The twins had the sense to see themselves out.

"I was just talking to her," Astrid blurted out. Starlight wasn't buying it. She never did. As far as Starlight was concerned, the blonde warrior couldn't be trusted after she ripped off Brenna's prosthetic leg in a training exercise and made her cry in the privacy of her own home.

*Norse **"And why should I believe you?"** Starlight growled.

"Because she's telling the truth," Brenna told her. "Starlight, stand down." Growling, Starlight did so. Everyone was relieved.

"I'm sorry about that," Brenna apologized. "Starlight is very protective of me. Always has been and probably always will be."

*Norse **"I am right here,"** Starlight huffed. *Norse **"If you're going to talk about me, then at least make sure I'm not there."**

"And if you're going to hurt someone, make sure I'm not there," Brenna told her. Astrid breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks," Astrid whispered. Starlight hated her. She was lulling Brenna into a false sense of security, building her hopes up so she could take pleasure in knocking them down. Starlight just knew that this was Astrid's true intentions, and she vented to Toothless about it just out of the humans' earshot.

 **"I know the only reason she won't let me go near the blonde girl is because she wants these people to like her!"** Starlight ranted. Toothless tried to be the voice of reason throughout it all.

 **"It's a new place and it seems like she'd like some friends. Let her settle in and get used to everything,"** Toothless advised. Starlight, a lot calmer now, nodded.

 **"That makes much more sense. Thanks, Toothless,"** Starlight smiled, nuzzling him. Toothless stiffened up and a big smile spread across his face. Brenna noticed it immediately. So did Hiccup and Astrid.

"What's up wit him?" Hiccup asked.

"Let me explain it to you as simply as I can. Your dragon is madly in love with my dragon," Brenna explained. "And because of the aforementioned love, my dragon has your dragon wrapped around her smallest, sharpest claw. That's pretty much it."

". . . OK," Hiccup muttered. Brenna rolled her eyes.

"Lovestruck dorky Night Furies that team up to play pranks on the innocent public," the redheaded witch sighed. "What the Thor have I done to deserve anything like this?" Starlight grinned at Brenna.

*Norse **"I have no idea, Brenna. Maybe it was because of that time when you turned your grandmother's favourite scarf into a kitten and played with it?"** Starlight asked, looking as innocent as possible. Hiccup and Astrid laughed, as Brenna turned as red as her hair.

"Oh, for Thor's sake, Starlight! I was three and it made a better cat than a scarf anyway!" Brenna retorted.

"This seems like a funny thing you'd do, Brenna," Astrid giggled.

"Please. I've done worse than this," Brenna grinned. The girls were still wary of each other, but the ice was melting a little. But only a little.

"Hey, kids, there's a sparring competition for the women. How about Brenna and Astrid go against each other?" Gobber asked. Brenna looked at Astrid. Astrid looked at Brenna. Then, in unison, they blurted out:

"ARE YOU CRAZY?! SHE'LL KILL ME!"

Everyone in earshot stared at them.

"And how will she kill you, exactly?" Gobber asked, slightly amused at the sudden turn of events.

"Look at her! She's a witch! She only needs one spell and I'm dead!" Astrid shrieked.

"Look at her! She's a warrior! She only needs one swing of her axe and I'm dead!" Brenna pointed out. After that outburst, the two looked at each other with utter fear in their eyes. Then the fear slowly melted away, making way for small smiles. Those smiles grew and grew, until they were both laughing hysterically. The ice had completely melted.

"You're not as bad as I thought, you know," Astrid admitted.

"Same to you," Brenna told her. The two grinned. Hiccup, the ever-curious nerd, had a question.

"So, are either of you going to enter the sparring thing or-"

"NOT NOW!" the girls yelled. Hiccup backed off and said no more about it. What guy was crazy enough to get two angry females on his back? And one had the ability to use magic, too! It would take a truly stupid individual to mess with both of them at the same time.

And that was when Snotlout waltzed over. Speak of Loki, and he shall appear.

"Well, would you look at that? Two beautiful ladies right in front of me! Have I died and gone to Valhalla or something?" Snotlout asked, a smarmy smile adorning his face. The girls were disgusted.

"You will soon," Astrid growled, placing a hand on the handle of her axe. Brenna batted it away. Creepy as he was, violence was not what she wanted to see.

"Oh, Astrid, don't be like that! You know you love the sound of my voice. And there's no way that you could shut me up, so you'll have to get used to it," Snotlout purred. Brenna had had enough.

"That's enough out of you," she ordered, blue sparks shooting out of her hands and towards Snotlout's mouth. Afterwards, Snotlout tried to speak, but his voice had been replaced by the lilt of a harp. "Now there's something I could get used to. Keep talking, Snotlout; I love the sound of your voice," the witch grinned. Astrid snickered.

"Your magic is pretty cool, Brenna," Astrid admitted. "And that spell looked hard, too."

"It gets easier with practice," Brenna replied. "And I've had to deal with a lot of creeps." She was nonchalant to the end while Snotlout ran around the Great Hall like a headless chicken because of the 'improvement' Brenna had made to his voice. Hiccup tried not to laugh at his hapless cousin and the comeuppance he'd received from the girls. He eventually bumped into Stoick, who was very confused by the situation, and had every right to be.

"What the Thor has - oh," Stoick sighed, as he heard that Snotlout's voice had been replaced by the notes of a harp. "Did you try messing with Brenna?" Snotlout nodded. "OK. Figured as much." He took Snotlout to Brenna in an attempt to work things out. "Brenna, did you put some sort of spell on Snotlout to replace his voice with the sound of a harp being played?"

"Yes," Brenna replied. She didn't try to hide it at all. Snotlout gaped at the nerve she possessed. That girl was confident, handled herself well and was fine in just about any situation . . . and he was madly in love with her. Brenna just drew him in with a cloak of mystery and her magic, even though she used it to mess with him.

"Brenna, I shall say this only once. Take the spell off him," Stoick commanded.

"Only if he leaves Astrid alone," Brenna negotiated. "Snotlout, do you promise to leave my friend alone in future?" The words 'my friend' made Astrid suppress a smile. Brenna saw her as a friend. Not an enemy, a friend. Now if only Starlight agreed with Brenna about her. Snotlout nodded. "Fine." The spell was lifted and Snotlout got his voice back.

"Holy Thor, thank you," Snotlout babbled.

"Don't mention it," Brenna told him.

"Brenna, but I-"

"Seriously, Snotlout. Don't mention it. _Ever._ " With that, Brenna snapped her fingers and was gone. Snotlout was in awe of the redheaded girl, and, like he did with any girl that seemed to hate him, he developed a crush. But he wasn't quite sure how to act with her, since she always seemed one step ahead of everyone, including him. Had to be the magic.

* * *

Once they were at home, Starlight went straight to sleep, while Brenna decided to pick up her flute. It had been a while since she played it, and she did so love her flute. She picked it up and started to play a melody that she had learnt from some sailors. It was a jaunty tune meant to raise the spirits of homesick sailors and didn't really suit the calm night, but she played it anyway. It was something she always liked to hear, and she played it loudly, not caring who heard.

Nobody complained, but it did make Snotlout stop for a little while and wait outside her house. He liked the sound of it. It brought his spirits up. He wanted to listen to it all night long. **"For Thor's sake, Snotlout, get away from there. You look like a creep,"** Hookfang chided, picking him up and carrying him away. **"You're in enough trouble as it is with her and Astrid being friends now. Come on."** Hookfang carried Snotlout home, wondering who was playing the flute and why Snotlout liked Brenna so much.


	12. Pranks, magic and Night Furies

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell, and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. However, I do own Brenna Bloodsword and Starlight the Night Fury, as they are my OCs. This disclaimer will change over time, as I may add more OCs to this story.

A/N: Here's a code I made up for you so this is easier to read.

 **Bold** : Dragons are talking  
 _Italics_ : Humans are thinking  
 _ **Bold italics**_ : Dragons are thinking  
Underlined: Any language being spoken that isn't either Norse or Dragonese by bilingual/multilingual characters. It will be written like this for humans:

*Language goes here "Insert speech here."

And like this for dragons:

*Language goes here **"Insert speech here."**

If there isn't a language in front of the speech, assume that they are speaking Norse if they're human and Dragonese if they're dragons. Sorry about giving such a long A/N, but I felt I had to explain this for you.

* * *

Today was not going to be a good one for Starlight and Toothless, although they didn't know it yet. It started out fine with their usual daily routine of messing with the two nerds in their lives. Brenna got her leg taken from her as she slept and Toothless dragged Hiccup out of bed and literally carried him downstairs (at the orders of his father, who was very pleased with the result).

"How are you this much of a jerk?" Brenna asked in exasperation, as her dragon casually toyed with her prosthetic.

*Norse **"I hatched like that,"** Starlight explained. *Norse **"How are you not fighting back?"**

"Oh, you want me to fight back?" Brenna asked, grinning sadistically. "Fine." She whistled, and the prosthetic flew to her hand. Starlight grumbled as Brenna attached the prosthetic.

*Norse **"And you say _I'm_ a jerk,"** Starlight sighed. *Norse **"Go get me breakfast, dork."**

"I left it in the kitchen," Brenna replied. Starlight went to get it, only to find that Brenna had boobytrapped the kitchen. She was hauled into the air by a net.

*Norse **"BRENNA!"** Starlight screamed. Brenna went into the kitchen, looked at the trussed up dragon, and laughed hysterically.

"This is priceless!" Brenna laughed. Starlight rolled her eyes.

 **"Shut up and get me down from here!"** Starlight ordered, no longer bothering to speak Norse. Brenna was still laughing as she undid the series of pulleys that hoisted Starlight above ground, lowering her down safely. **"I hate you."**

"Noted. So . . . are you going to kill me before or after breakfast?" Brenna asked, grinning.

 **"After breakfast, because I'm hungry,"** Starlight huffed. As she ate, Brenna grabbed an apple, got changed into a typical outfit of blue dress, grey fleece for warmth and black trousers and teleported herself out with the snap of her fingers. She met Hiccup and Astrid on the way to the Great Hall.

"Hey," she greeted. Hiccup and Astrid sought help from her immediately. They both looked very frantic.

"We need you to hide us!" he pleaded. "We have an angry Night Fury after us! Is there any way you could hide us?"

"Hold on a second. Hiccup, isn't Toothless your dragon? And why is Astrid in danger?"

"Toothless fell asleep after messing with us and we got some paint and paint brushes and then we drew on his face and wings," Hiccup blurted out. Brenna snorted.

"That's one I have to remember," Brenna grinned. "I have no idea why you want me to hide you from the big bad Night Fury by placing you in close proximity to another Night Fury."

"Fair point," Hiccup admitted. "Maybe your magic can help us get away from them." Astrid smiled. This should be good.

"Then come with me so we can get some privacy. I don't like to do magic in public unless I have to. It freaks people out," Brenna explained, dragging them behind her house. Then she created a blue sparks between her hands, which swirled in thin air until it flattened out and turned itself into a round, perfect circle. Brenna muttered some spell under her breath, and soon Hiccup and Astrid could see an island with no dragons on it. Brenna widened the portal by whistling, and then she motioned for her friends to just walk through. This was a portal they were seeing. "Come on." That was the last thing she said before she walked right through the portal as if it was any normal door, leaving them on the other side on their own.

"Should we go with her?" Hiccup asked.

"It's either Brenna or Toothless," Astrid told him, before stepping through. Hiccup didn't want to be left alone and stepped through, finding himself in a whole new world. The couple realized that they were on the island where they first encountered Brenna and Starlight, and nothing seemed to have changed. It was still a lush paradise, perfect for dragons. It was just really weird that none of them lived there. It had fish, water and shelter for them and their mates and hatchlings up in the caves.

"Why'd you take us here?" Hiccup asked.

"Because even if they do realize we're here, by the time Starlight flies out here to get to us, it'll be too late," Brenna replied. "You said you needed a hiding place, right? This is pretty far away from Berk. I heard Stormfly talking about needing two rest breaks because the journey took so long."

"Why did you only say Starlight?" Hiccup asked.

"Wait, can Toothless' tailfin let him fly without you?" Brenna asked, momentarily confused.

"No," Hiccup replied.

"Then I was right the first time," Brenna replied, not confused any more and returning to the confident, knowledgeable manner she'd adopted. "Until Starlight gets here and drags us back to her boyfriend for us all to die, might as well get something to eat. Who's hungry? Some of the fish traps I left out here should still be working. We'll set up a fire and cook it out in the open while awaiting Night Fury-related doom."

"Why does this sound like a really good idea?" Astrid asked.

"No idea, but I'm in," Hiccup agreed.

"Fine. You two, come with me," Brenna ordered, and off they went to get some proper food and await their inevitable deaths. Typical things that friends did together.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Berk, Toothless had cleaned off all the paint Hiccup and Astrid had left on his scales and was now looking for Starlight. **"Starlight, have you seen Hiccup and/or Astrid anywhere?"** he asked.

 **"No; why?"** the female Night Fury queried.

 **"They put paint all over me when I was asleep and now I want revenge,"** Toothless told her. Starlight raised an eye-ridge at the odd behaviour. That wasn't like the nerds they knew. They usually did nerdy stuff all day and only planned pranks after being provoked.

 **"Since we're talking about nerds, have you seen Brenna anywhere?"** Starlight asked.

 **"No; why?"** Toothless asked.

 **"She set up a trap in the kitchen when I was getting breakfast,"** Starlight told him.

 **"Maybe they all left together,"** Toothless suggested. **"Stormfly should be gone, too."**

 **"Let's check,"** Starlight suggested. They went over to the stables and found Stormfly chatting with Meatlug. Since they weren't expecting it, they stared in shock.

 **"Are you two OK?"** Stormfly asked.

 **"Have you seen Astrid anywhere?"** Starlight blurted out.

 **"Not for a while, why?"** Stormfly answered.

 **"We've just been wondering where she is. Our riders are gone, too, and since Hiccup and Brenna are gone, too, we were wondering if it was related,"** Starlight explained.

 **"That makes a lot more sense now,"** Meatlug said. **"For a moment, I thought you'd gone crazy."**

 **"Yeah, me too,"** Stormfly agreed. Toothless and Starlight rolled their eyes.

 **"Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence,"** Starlight huffed, before they both left.

 **"I'm beginning to worry about those two,"** Stormfly muttered, once they were gone and well out of earshot.

 **"Same here,"** Meatlug agreed.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the unnamed island, Hiccup, Astrid and Brenna were eating cooked fish and passing around berries that had somehow been growing in her absence. In general, they were having a much better time than their dragons, who were freaking out because they couldn't find their riders anywhere. (Toothless and Starlight were freaking out; Stormfly was fine.)

"You make some really nice fish, Brenna," Astrid commented, as she ate.

Brenna blushed. "Thank you. I'm just glad that I forgot to take down those fish traps I set up when I got here."

"So getting food is more convenient?" Hiccup suggested.

"No, Hiccup, so I can see if the massive plant with teeth prefers salmon or haddock for its breakfast," Brenna sassed. Astrid giggled, and Hiccup huffed, pouting. The girls grinned at each other. "Does he always pout like that?"

"Only when he's annoyed," Astrid explained.

"I am right here, you know, " Hiccup huffed, rolling his eyes.

"He is definitely pouting now," Brenna snickered.

"Am not," he retorted.

"Are too," Astrid butted in.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"I'll see if I left anything behind," Brenna muttered, slipping away into her old house. She thought that maybe she'd left behind some journals made on her travels, and the magic-using redhead was right. Three big books of journal entries were stacked up on top of each other. Brenna picked one up to flip through, and out of its pages burst an explosion of colour and noise. Quickly, Brenna closed the book, hoping that Hiccup and Astrid didn't hear anything. Luckily for her, they were busy arguing. There was no room for her in their . . . discussion.

"Astrid, I am not stubborn!" Hiccup retorted.

"Listen to yourself!" Astrid snapped. Brenna stuck her head out of the door. She had to stop this somehow.

"Did you say anything?" she asked. "I could have sworn someone said my name." It was a blatant lie, but she'd always hated the sound of arguing.

"No," they chorused.

"Oh." Brenna took this moment to sit down. "Anyway, now I have your undivided attention, would you like to go home now? I'm sure our dragons are worried about us."

"Well, how would you know? We can't see them, can we?" Hiccup snapped. He didn't mean to be so short with her, but he'd just been in an argument with his girlfriend and his ego felt a little fragile.

"The magic I used to get you here is the same type I need to see what's happening on Berk," Brenna pointed out. "And our dragons are . . . freaking out."

"Do you know that because you can use your magic to see what they're doing right now?" Hiccup asked.

"No, Hiccup. I know that because if they were gone with no sign of which direction they had gone in and we were on Berk, we'd be going crazy," Brenna replied. "Toothless and Starlight learned a lot from us, you know."

"Fair point," Hiccup admitted. "Let's go home." Brenna, once again, created a ball of blue sparks in her hands and widened it with a long, low whistle until it was big enough for them to step through. Then she took her old diaries with her when they weren't looking. They, with less fear this time, stepped through it, finding themselves behind Brenna's house, meaning everything came back full circle. They emerged from behind Brenna's house, only to be tackled to the floor and licked by two very anxious Night Furies.

*Norse **"Where were you? Why didn't you tell us? What took you so long?"** Starlight babbled.

 **"Don't ever disappear like that again, Hiccup, please,"** Toothless pleaded.

"Easy, easy! We just went to the island where a lot of our stuff is to retrieve some of it to put in our house and use some of the fish traps to get a proper breakfast," Brenna explained.

*Norse **"What sort of stuff?"** Starlight asked.

"Just these old sketchbooks, nothing you'd be interested in," the redheaded female remarked.

*Norse **"But I thought those were your diaries, Brenna,"** Starlight said. *Norse **"Those books that you're holding right now."** Everyone stared at Brenna.

"You kept a diary?" Hiccup asked. "What did you write in it?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to stay up pouting about because I'm not telling you," Brenna sassed. "I didn't even want to tell anyone that I had a diary in the first place, but that plan was foiled by the walking reason to never teach any dragon how to speak Norse ever."

*Norse **"Hey!"** Starlight snapped. Toothless fought back laughter. It was a mean joke directed at his girlfriend, but it was funny. Starlight tail-slapped him.

 **"Ow!"** Toothless yelped.

 **"You earned that one,"** Starlight huffed.

"Why did you keep a diary?" Astrid asked.

"The things I saw were insane, and sometimes I thought I was having a weird dream and I would wake up soon. Having a diary helped me come to terms with the fact that it was real," Brenna explained.

*Norse **"Also, she wanted somewhere to put all her sappy thoughts of homesickness,"** Starlight interrupted. Brenna glared at her, and then created blue sparks between her hands. Blue became light grey, and then the grey ball grew in size (roughly the same size of a barrel of ale) and began to hover over Starlight's head. *Norse **"Oh, great, more magic. What does this spell do?"** Starlight asked, rolling her eyes.

"It's just a storm cloud, Starlight," Brenna informed.

 **"Storm cloud?"** Toothless chimed in.

"Yes, Toothless, a storm cloud. Like the ones in the sky. Watch this," Brenna asserted. A rumble of thunder could be heard from the storm cloud.

*Norse **"Sounds like your stomach,"** Starlight joked. A bolt of lightning struck the floor in front of them, leaving behind a scorch mark. Both Night Furies jumped.

 **"AAAAAARGH!"** they screamed. Both nerds stifled laughter.

 **"First you leave a net trap in the house, then this!"** Starlight snapped. **"I may be the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, Brenna Bloodsword, but you're going to be the death of me!"**

 **"Wait; your humans pranked you, too?"** Toothless blurted out, incredulous. **"I thought the only humans that did that were Hiccup and Astrid."**

 **"No, my human's an utter jerk, too,"** Starlight reassured. **"She hid a net inside the kitchen and sent me downstairs to get my food! I have no idea how long she'd been planning this, but if it was supposed to make me angry, it worked!"**

 **"And Hiccup and Astrid drew on my face with paint!"** Toothless complained. They glared at the nervously chuckling nerds and came to a silent conclusion: revenge was in order.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Hiccup asked.

"That we shouldn't be near any angry Night Furies?" Brenna asked.

"Exactly," Hiccup agreed, and they ran like Hel. Toothless and Starlight chased after them, but Toothless wouldn't start the chase before licking Astrid's face and getting drool all over her clothes. (After all, she had helped.) People glanced at the spectacle, chuckled, and got on with other stuff they had to do.

"What's happening now?" Gobber asked.

"Hiccup must have been messing with Toothless, and now Toothless is chasing him," Stoick explained. "It's pretty common. Toothless will probably tackle Hiccup to the ground or throw him somewhere in about 3, 2, 1 . . ." A loud splash should be heard, far too loud for it to be human and definitely too loud for it to be Hiccup. Hiccup had tricked Toothless into running really fast and then getting out of the way just in time.

 **"HEY!"** Toothless yelled, as he was thrown into the sea. Stoick raised a single eyebrow out of curiosity. This was not normally what happened.

"Oh, look, it's that Brenna girl who just came to the island," Gobber pointed out, as Brenna ran for her life from Starlight. "Reckon the same thing will happen to her dragon?"

"Nah. They may both be Night Furies, but they can't be that much alike," Stoick discounted. A loud splash could be heard just after that sentence had been finished.

 **"HEY!"** Starlight yelled, as she lost her balance into the sea.

"I stand corrected," Stoick muttered, as Gobber lost his mind laughing. Toothless and Starlight eventually emerged from the sea with pissed off looks on their faces, to the laughter and cheering of the other Berkians and dragons.

 **"We're not living this one down, are we?"** Starlight asked.

 **"Nope,"** Toothless told her. Brenna was whistling innocently as she checked on her prosthetic leg.

"Oh, hello," she greeted, taking the false leg apart and reconstructing it to see if it worked properly.

 **"Jerk,"** Starlight growled.

"Wait, so you can wake me up by tipping the bed over while I am still in it, eat my food at breakfast and tell other people about the dumb stuff we used to do together as kids, but I plan one prank and I'm a jerk?" Brenna asked. Starlight growled and settled for tail-slapping her rider around the head. "WHOA!" Brenna yelped, ducking out of the way just in time to avoid a Night Fury's tailfin to the face.

 **"Serves you right,"** she huffed, looking down her snout at the giggling nerds. "Honestly, what would you say right now if Toothless and I decided to sit on you both?"

"I feed this Night Fury too much," they chorused, before staring at the other one with shock that they said the same thing as them.

 **"As I suspected. Nerdy minds think alike,"** Starlight sarcastically remarked to Toothless, over the laughter of other Vikings and dragons. The laughter only increased after seeing the looks of utter shock on Hiccup and Brenna's faces as they stared at each other.

"How the Hel did you know what I was going to say?" they asked each other, again speaking in unison. Now there was another funny thing for them to laugh at: how Hiccup and Brenna said the same thing at the same time. "Are you reading my mind or something?"

 **"Now this is funny!"** Toothless giggled.

 **"Totally worth being dunked into the sea,"** Starlight summarized.

"Why are you saying the same stuff as me? Are you enchanted or something?" The nerds quizzed each other on how they were predicting each other's speech, while their Night Furies laughed. "Will you two shut up?" they yelled to their Night Furies, which only made everyone laugh even more.

"This is funny and all, but all good things come to an end eventually, and I think I know how," Astrid grinned.

"You can, huh? Prove it!" Snotlout dared. Astrid grinned, and stepped forwards. Soon, a shrill whistle cut through the air that made everyone stop and stare.

"Hiccup! Brenna! Which one of you is the most experienced with dragons?" the blonde asked.

"Him," Brenna said, pointing at Hiccup.

"Her," Hiccup said, pointing at Brenna. Everything came to a standstill.

"Wait; what did I just witness?" Astrid asked herself aloud.

"Now this can't be right. I can't be the one who knows more about dragons. You got to live with a Night Fury all your life. You taught Starlight how to speak Norse, and she taught you Dragonese. You translate for dragons at the blink of an eye like it's nothing. Before, people would kill dragons as revenge for destroying our homes and also for sport. But you've been living alongside one all your life. How am I the one with more experience?" Hiccup asked.

"Now this can't be right. You've basically rewritten the entire book on dragons, got to study them, interact with them. The people in my village thought dragons were extinct. Nobody knew Starlight was a Night Fury until a traveller saw her, told some official something about Starlight being lightning and death and ran away to his boat, screaming like crazy. How am I the one with more experience?" Brenna asked.

"Your village thought dragons were extinct?" Hiccup repeated. A few Vikings snickered.

"I know. It may sound crazy to you, Hiccup, because you grew up with dragons, but not all villages have their own Book of Dragons to consult," Brenna pointed out. "Until she was twelve, Starlight was registered as an exotic winged lizard, from place unknown. They had no idea she was a dragon."

 **"Exotic winged lizard?"** Toothless repeated, horribly confused. **"Seriously?"**

 **"Not a word if you know what's good for you,"** Starlight groaned, placing her paws over her eyes.

"Wait a minute . . . if Starlight knew Dragonese without meeting another dragon while growing up . . . then dragons must have an ability to speak Dragonese embedded into them from the point of hatching! Language is an innate ability for dragons! It's behaviours like hunting, flying and draconic social skills that are taught by the parents! That is so cool!" the resident nerds chorused, celebrating. Their Night Furies rolled their eyes.

 **"So dorky,"** Starlight muttered.

 **"At least if they're too busy celebrating, then they can't go anywhere,"** Toothless said, trying to be the optimist.

"Quickly! We have no time to waste! Where's the Book of Dragons?" Brenna asked.

"I left it in the Great Hall. Come on, we have to go!" Hiccup told her, and they ran off.

 **"Oh look, you spoke too soon,"** Starlight noted. **"Well, I guess we have to go, now."**

 **"What for?"** Toothless asked.

 **"Our nerds can't be left alone,"** the female Night Fury explained to her male counterpart. **"Come on, I'll race you."**

 **"Can't say no to that!"** Toothless agreed. They raced each other to the Great Hall, where they witnessed their riders editing the Book of Dragons. Toothless, being the only dragon that could read, looked over their shoulders and gasped with shock. **"Hey! You two have got a lot of nerve!"**

 **"What now?"** Starlight asked. **"What does it say?"**

 **"Night Furies: the unapologetic jerks of the dragon world,"** Toothless read.

 **"Why, those smug little nerds!"** Starlight snapped. **"Just wait till I get my claws on them!"**

 **"Starlight, they're still there,"** Toothless pointed out. Hiccup and Brenna waved at the enraged Night Furies. Then they ran, and the Night Furies chased them.

 **"Get them!"** Starlight ordered.

"Now would be a good time for another portal-thingy, Brenna," Hiccup panted.

"I know. We just need to lose them first," Brenna gasped.

*Norse **"We heard that, you know!"** Starlight yelled. Hiccup and Brenna ran faster, took turn after turn to shake them off . . . until, finally, they did it. They lost them. They found themselves in a disused, dusty backstreet nicknamed "Drunkards' Alley", aptly named for the astonishing rate of drunk people falling asleep there after what had to have been a very good night.

"They're gone, right?" Hiccup gasped, trying to catch his breath.

"Right," Brenna confirmed, leaning against the wall.

*Norse **"Wrong!"** Starlight denied, as she and Toothless swung down from the rooftops of the two houses, grabbed their riders and took them to the cove. Hiccup and Brenna screamed, cursed (well, Brenna cursed, but Hiccup didn't) and fought, but it was useless.

*Dragonese "Hey, Starlight, put me down!" Brenna demanded.

"Get off of me!" Hiccup snapped. "Where are we going?"

*Norse **"You'll find out once we get there,"** Starlight grinned.

"Oh, stop being so overdramatic," the nerds chorused, rolling their eyes at their dorky Night Furies. The Night Furies in question gasped at the absolute cheek of it all.

 **"They so deserve what's coming to them,"** Toothless huffed.

 **"I completely agree,"** Starlight grinned. **"Where and who do we start with first?"**

 **"Both of them at the same time,"** Toothless replied.

 **"Yeah, good call,"** Starlight agreed.

"What are they saying?" Hiccup asked.

"They're picking who to start with. I don't know what they're thinking, though," Brenna replied. "That would require magic, and they're immune."

"Oh, right. Dammit," Hiccup sighed. Starlight decided to shut this translation scheme down so Hiccup didn't know anything else about their plan.

 **"That's enough out of you,"** Starlight grinned, placing a paw over Brenna's mouth so the only thing Hiccup could hear was faint angry mumbles. This wasn't going to end well for either of them. Both nerds saw Night Fury tongues sticking out, put two and two together, and almost screamed. But then it was too late.

"Eww! Off, off, off!" Hiccup commanded, as his brown hair stuck straight up with Night Fury saliva.

"Starlight, ew! No! Bad dragon!" Brenna stammered, as drool stuck to her clothing and face. "For Thor's sake, you know how much I hate this!"

*Norse **"I know! That's why I'm doing this!"** Starlight replied, licking Brenna even more.

"Why, you mean little - not my hair! You know how long it takes for me to wash it!" Brenna protested. Saliva was dripping off Brenna's hair, and Starlight snuggled her with a big, smug grin on her face.

 **"So cute. Toothless, let's face it, human nerds are adorable,"** Starlight gushed.

 **"I know. Watch this,"** Toothless grinned, as he styled Hiccup's hair into a mohawk using only his (Toothless', not Hiccup's) saliva. Hiccup blushed at the things Toothless was doing with his hair.

"How do you get this stuff off you?" Hiccup asked, as Starlight attempted to braid Brenna's hair. Unfortunately, she couldn't completely release it from its bun prison due to a lack of opposable thumbs. "Do you use magic? Prepare a potion?"

"No, Hiccup, you don't do any of that, but there is something you can do," Brenna replied.

"What?" Hiccup asked.

"Take a bath, like a normal person," Brenna replied.

*Norse **"You are adorable. Now, we're going to let you go, and this won't happen again unless this flippant behaviour continues,"** Starlight replied. "Come on." Brenna and Hiccup were shepherded back home, and both took a very grateful shower. Being licked felt uncomfortable, but washing off the saliva felt AMAZING. Brenna spent an awful lot of time washing her hair, which could be justified once you took in just how long it was.

It reached her calves. Yes, you read that right, her calves.

"And . . . all done!" Brenna sighed. "Now to get my clothes . . . where are my clothes?" She could hear Starlight giggle. "For Thor's sake, Starlight!" Brenna huffed, as she created a portal to her wardrobe, where she quickly grabbed her nightgown and pulled it through the other end of the portal. "Damned Night Fury," she huffed, as she stomped off to bed, drying herself with magic. "Doesn't know when to quit."

 **"And if you think she's bad, you should see her rider,"** Starlight chimed in.

"Shut up, Starlight."

 **"Love you too, nerd queen."**


End file.
